Armando Bo: “Reality surpasses fiction at the 'FIFA Gate”

The Bo family's bond with film spans several generations. Armando Bo Jr., winner of the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Birdman (2015), talks with AS about El Presidente, the series he directs and which is inspired by the FIFA Gate that ended with the disqualification of Blatter, Platini and other leaders . A work that confers the category of “author series” and that comes with controversy. The family of Julio Grondona, former president of the AFA, announced a lawsuit against the platform after the premiere.

Are you a football fan?

I am. Fan of Independiente de Avellaneda, Bochini represents all my childhood and fan of Messi and Barcelona, ​​which is what makes me happy from time to time. (Laughs)

Why the President, inspired by the FIFA scandal?

I tried to avoid the world of soccer, but not the soccer business. I wanted to show this new mob that we had not seen. At one point it is a kind of circus, parody or satire. FIFA Gate is of great importance. It was such a big and international explosion … The political and corruption management that there were many already knew. They managed to stay thirty years in power. And tell it from the point of view of Jadue (Andrés Parra), this little man who leaves the smallest place in Chile and ends up exploiting a world business. Many times reality surpasses fiction and this is the case.

Did you consider counting it as a documentary and not as a series?

We wanted to show the absurd, the diplomatic immunity of CONMEBOL … A version in journalistic format could certainly be made, but this is something else. It was a great opportunity to play with the freedom of tone and make a tragicomedy. Everything is a delusion. If Grondona tells you from heaven, anything can happen.

Did you receive a message from Blatter's environment or former leaders? Did you work freely?

Everyone knows what he did. We had no freedom in the sense that there was a legal side to making use of names, but almost everything that is in general happened. What happens is that it is taken to the extreme from the tone of fiction. The series plays with this and not with the complaint.

Julio Grondona's role in the series is key.

It was a great challenge as a director. Actor Luis Margani appeared. The first time I saw it it was like watching a documentary. He spoke and moved similarly, he had that gross tone of southern Italy, he was Argentine at the same time … He aligned himself with what I saw of Grondona.

With a power almost comparable to that of a nation president in some cases …

They were patterns of stay. It is part of that kitsch world of Luque, Paraguay. Imagine the freedom they had for that people to have diplomatic immunity.

The most difficult thing was …

Learn to sacrifice and not show where you sacrificed a lot. It was difficult to maintain quality everywhere. It was my first experience in the streaming world. The eight episodes, the eight hours, are like four movies together. It was a huge challenge in meteoric time for a kind of author series. It took us about a year and a half. Grateful for creative freedom. It was a risk to tell a parody.

Sports streaming content is booming.

I like this type of mob, but I don't see myself doing something sporty. I find it more interesting how the human being works. It is impossible to achieve a Messi, Maradona, Bochini … Who would act? Jordan's documentary is what it is because it is Jordan.

What does sport have to hook and go so far?

It is an entertainment that helps us feel part of, gives us something to believe in. I wonder Why do I feel so sad when Messi loses a match? I neither know him nor know me, but he is.

If I could sign Messi for Independiente …

I'm saving. With what I earn with this series I will try to buy the transfer. (Laughs)