By Carasucia Rebelde
June 18, 2018
Fans of the Handmaid’s Tale series are already talking about the next season of the popular TV show which the producers are hoping to start filming in the Dominican Republic by the summer.
Cheap production cost (labor unions are semi-legal in the DR), great tropical weather plus an extremely oppressive social climate made the Dominican Republic more attractive to the producers of the TV show based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale published in 1985.
According to a leaked document in social media, the producers of The Handmaid’s Tale think filming in the Caribbean nation will aid in writing more realistic episodes on the oppressive, reactionary world that both the book and TV crudely depict:
- The state treats women as second-class citizens.
- There is no right to abortion or healthcare under any circumstance.
- The state condemns same-sex desire.
- The state enacts racist laws to marginalize large segments of the population.
- There is no freedom of speech.
- There is no freedom of the press.
- There is no separation between church and state.
- The state inflicts violence on dissidents.
- Medieval rules of conduct dominate daily life. For example, no shorts pants in museum and too much cleavage is prohibited.
- Black people are not allowed in restaurants, museums and art schools like Altos de Chavón.
- No afros permitted in schools, the workplace, restaurants.
- Old white men from middle class backgrounds run the state.
Additionally, the producers of the Handmaid’s Tale find the D.R a perfect location for filming since there is a large pool of cheap labor and actors are under-paid, an incentive for any US-based filming company.
Another leaked revealed the name of the actress who will play the role of Aunt Lydia known for her fanaticism and frequent outburst of violence: the Cardi-B hater and xenophobic pamphleteer Consuelo Despradel.