Series “Family Secrets” | Bring down the castle

The main thing is not my child, that is the wish of everyone involved in “Family Secrets”. Photo: SWR/Distinto Films/Quim Vives The point at which young people can be held responsible for their behavior under criminal law is always the subject of socio-political debates. The four-part series “Adolescence,” which made it to the top of the series charts on Netflix, showed how virulent the topic is and the broad interest it arouses. The series, which premiered in March, is one of the most streamed content on Netflix ever. “Adolescence” sparked debates about the culpability of children (which in Great Britain applies from the age of 10), but also about misogyny, toxic masculinity, the associated violence, which is increasingly being perpetrated by young people, and the role of social media in this context.

Now comes “Family Secrets” (original title “Pubertat”), a series from Catalonia that is also located in this area of ​​tension and has already sparked discussions in Spain about the abuse of minors and the role of parents in coming to terms with it. The six-part series, produced by Catalan television and HBO, among others, can be seen in this country on Arte. Despite the thematic similarities, it is very different from “Adolescence”.

“Family Secrets” talks about how difficult it can be for minors to name abuse and hold perpetrators accountable.

While the British drama is about a murder committed by a minor against a girl of the same age, "Family Secrets" tells of how difficult it can be for underage victims to name abuse and hold perpetrators accountable.

The creator of the series is Leticia Dolera, who was awarded in Cannes in 2019 for “Vida perfecta”, who directed “Family Secrets”, co-wrote the script and also plays one of the main roles. The starting point is a night during Sant Joan, the summer solstice celebration that is celebrated in Spain and Catalonia with public and private parties including fireworks, similar to New Year's Eve. The four young people Pol, Roger, Steven and Manu have been close friends for years, as have their families. Because they are all members of a Castelles club in which people of different ages climb on top of each other to form human pyramids, which in Catalonia is as much a tradition as a sport. The idea is that the older ones form the base of the “castle” (castle), the younger ones climb up and move down as they get older. Everyone relies on each other to pull off this intergenerational balancing act of human bodies.

When the four young people, aged 13 and 14, celebrate a pajama party in Sant Joan with Pol (Ot Serra Bas), the entrepreneur's son whose father Marti (Xavi Saez) is also the club president, they consume copious amounts of alcohol, cough syrup and Viagra. Drunk, the four kids watch a lot of porn on their smartphones. As their intoxication increases, they begin to dance and cuddle until at some point Manu (Aina Martinez) wakes up and realizes that something is wrong. What did the three boys do to her when she was drunk? She doesn't know exactly anymore. But she feels bad. When a video of the pajama party appears among the club's young people, showing Manu curling up on the bed and the boys lying on top of her, it becomes clear that something has happened.

Only after a few days does Manu's memory return, while at the same time the rumor of rape makes the rounds in the club. When the boys are questioned, eventually by the youth welfare office and the police, they categorically deny everything. And all adults initially trivialize what happened; they would only be children whose imaginations ran away with them. The feminist author Julia (Leticia Dolera), who does everything to protect her son Roger (Bruno Bistuer Farre), reacts no differently.

“Family Secrets” is not about an impenetrable cartel of silence, even if the three boys are not ready to testify for a long time. It's more about the collective willingness to put the issue into perspective and make it impossible to clarify the events. The accusation of rape, which went viral among the club's young people, cannot be supported by any explicit images. Everything looks like superficial intimacy. And finally, the adults outdo each other in their assurances that there is nothing serious going on here.

But none of the adults want to deal with the issues surrounding the sexuality of minors, where and when violations occur and boundaries are crossed. This only happens in mediation, which everyone involved agrees to after much back and forth. This exchange, which seems almost like group therapy, at least addresses the needs of the traumatized 13-year-old Manu.

“Family Secrets” impressively shows how male structures of violence are reproduced and passed on across different generations. For a long time, the human “castles” in the Castelles association seemed to cement social power structures in particular, until a few young women fought to come to terms with what had happened.

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