Blum (stylized as blum.) is a fiction podcast written and directed by Manuel Bartual and Carmen Pacheco, produced by the Spanish production company El Extraordinario. The story follows a journalist investigating the disappearance of an art history student who was studying the fictional avant-garde painter Ursula Blum.
Background
The podcast is composed of nine episodes, each approximately 20 minutes in length. In each episode, the characters travel by train to visit a different city in Switzerland, including Basel, Geneva, Lucerne, Lugano, St. Gallen, and Bern. Throughout the series, the characters visit 10 different art museums.
The series stars Jacinto Bobo, Nicky García, and Vicky Luengo (credited as Vicky Porque in the English version). The story follows journalist Emma Castillo (named Emma Clark in the English adaptation) as she investigates the disappearance of an art history student named Clara Pastor (Clara Torres in the English version). Clara had vanished while working on her thesis about Ursula Blum, a 20th-century avant-garde painter. Five years after Clara's disappearance, Emma travels to Switzerland to continue the investigation.
The podcast was produced as a branded content collaboration with Switzerland Tourism and was originally released in Spanish. It was later adapted into English.
Reception
In a review for The Guardian, critic Miranda Sawyer commented that the "start is a little slow, and occasionally the acting somewhat stilted, but the story gets more absorbing as the tension increases."
At the 2023 Ondas Globales del Podcast Awards (II Premios Ondas Globales del Podcast), Blum was nominated in three categories and won the award for Best Branded Podcast.
