World premiering in the main Canneseries competition, “El Inmortal – Gangs of Madrid” marks the latest original series from Movistar Plus, the Spanish pay TV/SVOD arm of Telefonica, made with Banijay’s DLO Producciones and Telemundo Streaming Studios. Beta Film handles international distribution.

It shows. A Movistar Plus hallmark, “El Inmortal” reflects a real-life Spanish reality, the rise and fall – or here, fall and rise, then maybe fall and rebound – of the founding leader of Los Miami, a gang which controlled Madrid’s insatiable ‘90s drug business. José Antonio’s real-life counterpart survived four attempts on his life, becoming a legend and gaining his epic sobriquet.

But it also nails other facets of high-end scripted fiction.

“El Inmortal” begins as quiet-spoken ‘90s Madrid drug lord José (Alex García, frightening) insists on living his life, driving his infant daughter to her posh primary school.

Just after dropping her off, a motorbike passes spraying bullets, leaving him for dead. Whether this is his definitive death is another matter, however.

Cut to many years before as José is first seen in his humble Madrid barrio buying churros – fried dough morsels – for his mum and sister. He then catches some down time with his brother who has a learning discapacity.

This is the tale of a family man who wants a better life for his nearest and dearest. But he has no prospects. And these are Spain bling bling ‘90s when bankers made the front pages of society gossip magazines.

So José takes a huge bold short cut, and fast climbs the narco food chain through unyielding ambition, extraordinary good luck, his infiltration of the rich and famous, occasional merciless violence, and the deft use, as Episode 1 memorably captures, of alternative uses for a car’s cigarette lighter.

Slotting into the Movistar Plus-Telemundo multi-year co-production pact announced at 2019’s NATPE Miami, compared to the initial series in the deal, “Tell Me Who I Am,” “El Inmortal” has a new edge.

The violence, when it erupts, is brutal, its details graphic, such as when José looks on unfazed as dogs eat the dismembered remains of two victims, a hand and some entrails.

Sex scenes are that, José consuming desire for revenge against a world which has dealt him a raw deal in life souping his desire for a “pija,” a member of Madrid’s moneyed upper class. Episodes end singularly, as if the fiction world continues, though audience access to it concludes.

Directed by David Ulloa (“The Plague,” The Hunt: Monteperdido”) and Rafa Montesinos (“Parot”) and written by Diego Sotelo and David Moreno, who already teamed on Bambu-produced “Fariña” and “On Death Row,” “El Inmortal” is a classic mob thriller, but with a social underbelly, the life story of a man who wants to cross the social gulf fast. Implicitly, what it asks is why he didn’t have any legal alternatives.

Variety talked to the series creator, industry veteran and DLO head José Manuel Lorenzo, in the run-up to Canneseries.

What persuaded you to make the series?

It’s always a question of several factors. One was the era. I experienced it in Madrid. It was hugely exciting, a time when nights seemed unending. What I wanted to show was the person behind much of that Madrid scene.

The most major appeal of “El Inmortal” is its contradictory, complex central character. Could you comment?

The real breakthrough in creating “El Inmortal” was discovering its real-life central character. He’s a man with principles. This is the story of a man, his family and friends. Everything he achieved he did so with people close to him. Like Don Vito and then Michael in “The Godfather,” you like him, however homicidal he may be. He’s charismatic, capable of decisive actions, determined, but very down to earth. “El Inmortal” also turns on a man who didn’t know how to do anything else.

Have you contacted with the real-life figure?

Yes. I read an article in 2018, “Yo, el Miami Inmortal, Confieso” [by Javier Negre], and begun to talk seriously with Juan Carlos [Peña, the real-life name of the founder of Los Miamis]. Talking to him, I began to understand his world and to see how I could construct a series inspired by it, though fictionalizing a lot. The more he talked, the greater my fascination.

There’s a near innocence to much of what he does. José doesn’t seem to fully comprehend, though his Mexican girlfriend and best-friend warn him, what deep water he’ll get into just setting up a drug business on his own.

Totally. Los Miami could only rise to power when they did. Later, DEA protocols meant there was much more control over the cocaine business, its links to the police and political classes.

A Canneseries competition player is almost expected to suggest some innovative direction. In “El Inmortal,” one such instance is every episode finale….

DP David Omedes, who worked with me on “Tell Me Who I Am,” gave a very hand-held, ‘90s feel to the series, much made up of long-shots tracking the characters. Diego Sotelo is a great scriptwriter and David Moreno as well. Each episode is structured to reach a concrete finish, a fixed shot where the spectator watches as if through a key-hole as the series’ life goes on. It’s as if the spectator becomes a voyeur. And the key song in each episode surges once more: Episode 1’s “Jesucristo Garcia” or Episode 2’s “Pedro Navaja.” Each song is designed for a particular moment. One reason I love Martin Scorsese is his use of songs, the Rolling Stones, for instance.