According to Netflix data, the production has contributed over 225 billion Colombian pesos to the country’s economy. This figure is a measure of the impact to GDP and includes both the impact of our direct spending on the production and of the spending that happens downstream in the supply chain.
The project reaffirmed Colombia as a competitive destination for international productions due to its diverse landscapes, talent, and high quality services, which have been strengthened by an attractive framework of production incentives that allowed one of the most ambitious projects in Latin America to take place in Colombia.
Colombian hands
The commitment made with the Garcia Marquez family established that when it was time to take Macondo out of the imagination and into a physical place, the town had to be located in Colombia and built by Colombian hands. Filmed entirely in Colombia and produced by Dynamo, the series left its mark across the country, with a production team comprising more than 900 people, most of them Colombian.
In Alvarado, Tolima, Netflix’s Macondo was constructed on a plot of over 540,000 square meters, chosen not only for its natural landscapes but also for its logistical advantages. The locations team had to not only find the site but also handle tasks such as road improvements, access enhancements, drainage systems, tent installations, land preparation, and topographical studies.
This project brought together around 150 artisans from all over the country, who collaborated with over 850 local suppliers to engineer the constructions that would make this mythical town tangible. Additionally, to meet the demands of a creative team of this magnitude, the first part of One Hundred Years of Solitude accounted for over 100,000 hotel nights booked in Ibagué throughout the filming process.
The music produced for the series also provides this distinct Colombian seal with sounds from Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Toto La Momposina’s drummer, Carmelo Torres, and Víctor Navarro contributed to the series’ soundtrack. In costume design, approximately 40,000 garments were created, 97% of which were made with textiles of Colombian origin.
The series is available on Netflix as of December 11 and has already sparked the acclaim of international critics.
In addition, locals in Bogota will have the opportunity to visit an exhibition that captures some of the most memorable moments in the production of the series, as well as some of the original costumes designed by Catherine Rodriguez. This exhibition will be available to the public at the Museo El Chicó until December 18.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Part 1
About One Hundred Years of Solitude:
Married against their parents’ wishes, cousins José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán leave their village behind and embark on a long journey in search of a new home. Accompanied by friends and adventurers, their journey culminates with the founding of a utopian town on the banks of a river of prehistoric stones that they baptize Macondo. Several generations of the Buendía lineage will mark the future of this mythical town, tormented by madness, impossible loves, a bloody and absurd war, and the fear of a terrible curse that condemns them, without hope, to one hundred years of solitude.
Published in 1967, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the emblematic works of Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Considered a masterpiece of Spanish-American and universal literature and receiving enormous popular acclaim, it has sold more than 50 million copies and has been translated into more than 40 languages.
About Dynamo:
Founded in 2006, Dynamo is an independent Colombian entertainment company based in Bogota with offices in Mexico City, Madrid and New York. It is one of the most important audiovisual production companies in Ibero-America. To date, Dynamo has produced more than 47 feature films and 25 television series. Dynamo has supported talent including the team behind series like Wild District (Netflix), Crime Diaries (Netflix), Green Frontier (Netflix), The Head of Joaquin Murrieta (Prime Video), Mala Fortuna (Prime Video) and films such as The Hidden Face, Monos and recently Tarumama (HBO Max). Beyond developing original content, Dynamo also offers top- notch production services to foreign producers that wish to shoot in Colombia. It has provided local production services to many ambitious projects, including television shows like Narcos (Netflix), El Chapo (Netflix/Univision), Medellin (Prime Video), Falco (Prime Video) and films like Los 33 with Antonio Banderas, American Made with Tom Cruise, Mile 22 with Mark Wahlberg, and Gemini Man with Will Smith, among others.
