Renata Vaca leads the seven-episode adaptation, directed by Catalina Aguilar Mastretta, which premiered in Mexico City ahead of its September 2 Netflix debut.
Netflix unveiled Mal de amores in Mexico City with a premiere at Hacienda de los Morales, where the cast and creative team presented the first episode of the new seven-part series.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Mexican author Ángeles Mastretta, the adaptation carries an unusually personal connection to its source material: the series was written and directed by her daughter, filmmaker Catalina Aguilar Mastretta.
Renata Vaca stars as Emilia Sauri, a woman coming of age in the turbulent final years of 19th-century Mexico while confronting the limits imposed on women by the society around her.
Emilia refuses to choose between the life she is expected to live and the one she wants for herself. She pursues her vocation, her independence and her freedom to love while finding herself drawn to two very different men: Daniel Cuenca, an adventurous revolutionary tied to her childhood, and Antonio Zavalza, a doctor seeking peace amid political conflict.
The premiere brought together Vaca with Iván Amozurrutia, Juan Pablo Fuentes, Miguel Rodarte, Diana Bovio, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Humberto Zurita and Alejandro Puente, alongside Catalina and Ángeles Mastretta.
For Vaca, taking on Emilia became more than another leading role.
The actress described Mal de amores as a project that changed her life, highlighting both her connection with the character and the relationships formed during production. Catalina Aguilar Mastretta also spoke about the emotion of finally sharing the series with an audience, while Ángeles Mastretta reflected on seeing a story that began as a novel transformed for a new medium.
The story blends romance with a period of profound political and social transformation, using Emilia’s personal struggle for autonomy as its emotional center.
That combination gives Mal de amores a larger canvas than a traditional love story: the conflict surrounding Emilia is not only about which man she chooses, but about how much of her own life she is allowed to choose at all.
With one of Mastretta’s best-known works now reaching a global streaming audience, the adaptation also becomes a multigenerational creative collaboration between the novelist who imagined Emilia and the filmmaker bringing her to the screen.
Mal de amores premieres September 2 exclusively on Netflix.
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