Weeks ago, First Grade was broadcast, a youth series directed by Rudy Mora with 11 episodes and more than 90 characters.

The television proposal has generated contrary criteria, because, although it is aimed at a specific audience, it is shown in prime time on Sundays and many of those who sit in front of the screen fail to connect or understand the internal conflicts of this university student.

Daniela enters a spiral where she is unable to discern between revenge and justice, good or evil.

Ever since her nude photos invaded the internet, she has focused on making all those "supposedly" behind the violation of her privacy pay.

On the one hand, adolescence and youth dragging family problems, on the other, the need to work to help her mother financially.

Drag innocent people, friends, or strangers who have their own conflicts and problems into this thirst for revenge,

because unfortunately, and although it may seem cliché, life is not rosy.

In the last chapter you can see a repentant Daniela who begins to weigh the burden that she carries on her shoulders.

Why the bullying?

How valid is it to deal with issues that have been talked about for years, such as the consequences of mismanaging social networks?

In search of answers,

spoke with its director Rudy Mora.

***

The audiovisual, with 11 chapters of 53 minutes each, addresses issues such as inappropriate use of the Internet by adolescents, cyberbullying, post-prison social reintegration, alcoholism, family abandonment, and love.

The first time the director heard about a situation similar to the one reported in First Grade was long before the arrival of the mass internet in Cuba.

He remembers that a couple recorded themselves having sex and that video, which was initially on a hard drive, multiplied from flash memory to flash memory and from floppy disk to floppy disk throughout Havana.

"Later I heard from actresses who had similar problems and everything got worse four or five years ago with the boom in social networks," he adds.

“For a long time I was learning about similar cases, sometimes from people closest to me, or relatives of relatives or friends.

In the research that is done when working on a project, they told me many more anecdotes.

All the stories coincided with the harassment or the consequences of the misuse of social networks or the irresponsibility of having private photos on the phones”, explains Mora.

In this sense, he adds that

"First Grade is the conglomerate of a group of cases related to technology from Daniela's story."

Shots with a camera in hand or an almost excessive care of the costumes or photography distinguish the audiovisual proposal.

Regarding the aesthetic elements used in the series, Mora says that it has never been considered as a subject to look for a specific resource to do things differently.

“First Degree, like my previous series and my participation in the cinema, has to do with a personal need to transmit my visuality or show things how I feel them and how they identify me.

I am not looking for a particular fact or a leading visual discourse within a story.

I look for my own language and try to tune that particular form with a more contemporary worldview”.

Rudy Mora knows that we are currently invaded by foreign series, some of high quality, but others not so much.

“There is an international standard with a language and a visual discourse that it is important to approach. 

That worries me.

I need to constantly renew myself and find ways in which I can tell the stories in the staging.

***

The plot centers on Daniela, a computer science student who suffers changes in her life when some intimate photos she sent to her boyfriend are spread on social networks.

Photo: Taken from the Cuban Television Portal.

The vertiginous development of Information and Communication Technologies has led to the insertion of new spaces for social transformation in communities, refers to the article

" by Osviel Rodriguez Valdés and Lionel R. Baquero Hernández from the University of Informatics Sciences.

Life in society has awakened in a new scenario where ethical norms and their interpretation acquire a new meaning, the text cites, and information rights and ICT management facilities provide opportunities for access and publication of information that are not exempt. of inappropriate or improper use.

That is the case of Daniela..

Cyberbullying, unfortunately, is a common practice in relationships established in cyberspace.

It can be reflected in threats, harassment, humiliation and any other form of displeasure made by a digital user to another person.

This type of behavior is penalized in many Latin American countries where protocols are established to help victims of this social phenomenon

, they appear as digital natives, for them the Internet is a natural reality not opposed to that of the physical world," adds the source.

These maintain an intensive use from very early ages that is manifested mainly in Internet access, participation in social networks and the change of habit regarding the place and means of connectivity due to the irruption of mobile devices.

Cyberacos has great social and psychological implications for people.

Studies show that cyber-victims have feelings of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, stress, fear, low self-esteem, feelings of anger and frustration, nervousness, irritability, and sleep disorders.

***

Ariel Zamora on the set of the First Grade series.

Photo: Ariel Zamora/Instagram

Working with the actors is one of the fundamental areas in Rudy Mora's way of directing.

“The actors convey my ideas and my conception of the play.

It is a job to which I dedicate as much time as possible.

In this case I knew some of the young people and it was a starting point.

Other actors did casting, I selected them and I gave myself the task of dismantling molds and hobbies that they brought from other works”.

The director assures that it was an intense job that included a period of transformation.

“The technical script, photography, production, costumes, makeup... I am a director who touches absolutely everything.

He steals a lot of my time and I have to compartmentalize it.”

The expectations with Primer Grado —adds Mora— are that their work works and communicates a message.

“Above all, let the audience have fun and make it an attractive show.

From that, try to convey certain messages and ideas that allow you to think even in that interval of time.

You may like First Grade or not, understand it or not, be in favor of it or against it, but the use of more modern tools to make television cannot be denied.

Flawless and convincing performance from most of the actors;

openly tell themes and problems of Cuban society;

flashbacks that keep the reader intrigued;

and to complement, a bit of mystery.

Applause

Some drink from the others and a masterful result is obtained.

How far is the series from the Cuba of 2023?

How far will Daniela go?

Will revenge turn against her?

Judge or executioner?

Victim or victimizer?

These are questions that still remain to be answered.

On video, First Grade trailer