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If I Hadn't Met You / Si no t'hagués conegut
Year - 2019
Studio - Diagonal TV, Generalitat de Catalunya - Departament de Cultura, Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (ICEC), Netflix
Stars - Pablo Derqui, Andrea Ros, Javier Beltrán, Òscar Jarque, Mercedes Sampietro
Director - Kiko Ruiz Claverol, Joan Noguera
Writing Credits - Sergi Belbel, Cristina Clemente, Roc Esquius
Music - David Carabén
Synopsis
Eduard's (Pablo Derqui) wife, Elisa (Andrea Ros) and two children are killed in a car accident. He blames himself because her car had mechanical problems but he hadn't allowed her to use his car on that fateful day, needing it for an important business meeting. Desperately depressed, he attempts to commit suicide by jumping from a pedestrian bridge into the path of an oncoming train below. But a hand reaches out and prevents his falling. It is an old woman, Liz Everest (Mercedes Sampietro), who says that she "needs him." She takes him to her home, and tells him that she is a retired astrophysicist, and has discovered a portal to alternate universes. She wants Eduard to test the portal, needing someone who is not afraid to die, if necessary.
Understandably dubious, Eduard agrees to do the experiment. She leads him down a long corridor to a mysterious room. There she places a coiled bracelet on his wrist which, with a flash of light, embeds itself in his arm, leaving two glowing dots on the surface. She explains that pressing one dot sends him to another universe, the other returns him to this one. The choice of a universe is based on his recalling a decision point in his life, establishing the time at which he will arrive. He cynically chooses the point at which Liz saved his life, saying to her, "If I hadn't met you."
Eduard is immediately whisked to the point where he was about to jump from the bridge. There he witnesses his alternate universe counterpart fall to the tracks below where he is run over by the speeding train. Officials disembark from the train and are amazed to see both the dismembered body and the apparent same person, alive and standing before them. The shocked Eduard activates his return, and describes the horrific event to Dr. Everest.
Eduard continues his alternate universe travels, each time trying to choose a starting point that will ultimately result in his family being saved in that world. But all his attempts are unsuccessful, each ending tragically for someone in those universes, his family, his parents, Elisa, and even himself.
The experience of time is different on each of the universes visited. While he may spend several days on one trip, when he returns only a matter of minutes have passed, or vice versa. His parents, brother and in-laws grow increasingly concerned about his erratic comings and goings.
One of the trips finds Elisa's counterpart to be a famous singer who had never married Eduard. He then theorizes that Elisa's decision to go into the arts, instead of science, sealed her fate. So Eduard elects to intervene in that decision, leading him to the final revelation.