There are some novels that were never cut out for the film treatment – tomes so vast or seismic that to attempt to adapt them in the space of mere hours would be folly. But in the age of the big-budget streaming series, those adaptations are finally possible. And so it is that, several decades after being published, Gabriel García Márquez’s legendary masterpiece One Hundred Years Of Solitude is getting its first ever screen version – a 16-episode Netflix series which hopes to do justice to a story beloved around the world. Check out the first teaser here:
It’s a relatively cryptic first look, but for the uninitiated there’s a sense of what’s in store – a lush and vast multi-generational story spanning, well, 100 years. Yes, of solitude. Specifically in the fictional town of Macondo, Colombia in which the Buendía family grapples with its legacy. One Hundred Years Of Solitude remains a landmark work in the magical realist genre, a tradition that has considerable cultural heritage in Latin America – a lineage that continues through into modern mainstream fare like Disney’s Encanto. Netflix’s adaptation is directed by Alex Garcia Lopez – who helmed episodes of Daredevil, Cowboy Bebop and The Witcher – and Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora.
Here’s the official synopsis: “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 baptise 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.”
Can One Hundred Years Of Solitude hope to capture the mercurial and magical nature of the novel? Will those 16 episodes manage to encompass the intricacies of Gabriel García Márquez’s tale? We’ll find out when the series streams on Netflix later in 2024.