Amazon Prime Video Picks Four-Pack of Latin American Originals

Amazon Prime Video in Latin America has added four new Amazon Original Series to their catalog from Argentina, Chile and Colombia, the first Originals from the territories. The series will be available on the platform in more than 200 countries and territories.

Chile’s “La Jauría” (“The Pack”) already broadcast on domestic network TVN, will be joined by three series set to begin production in 2020: “Iosi, El Espía Arrepentido,” “Colonia Dignidad” and “Noticia de un Secuestro.”

From Chile, “La Jauría” is directed by award-winner filmmaker Lucía Puenzo, whose 2007 feature “XXY” won four prizes at the Cannes  Festival. The series stars Chilean Oscar-nominated “A Fantastic Woman” lead actress Daniela Vega in a story of a Catholic school girl who starts a protest against a deadly online game in which men are recruited to commit acts of violence towards women. The girl disappears and her story goes viral when a video of her own assault is posted online. Other cast include Antonia Zegers (“Fugitivos”) and three actors from Pablo Larraín’s “Ema”: Mariana Digirolamo, Antonia Giesen and Paula Luchsinger. It’s the first toe dip into international TV series for Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, who co-produce with Fremantle, with whom they hold down a multi-year production sales alliance.

Producer-director Daniel Burman (“El Abrazo Partido,” “Victoria Small”) and writer-director Sebastián Borensztein’s (“Heroic Losers,” “Chinese Take-Out”) have teamed up on Argentina’s “Iosi, El Espía Arrepentido.” The eight-hour series is based on true events and follows a young intelligence agent on a mission of redemption after information collected through years of his work is used to perpetrate two of Latin America’s worst-ever terrorist attacks which killed more than 100 people. The Mediapro Studio’s Oficina Burman produces the series.

 “Colonia Dignidad” is a docu-series about the lives of settlers who survived years of psychological, physical and sexual abuse by cult leader, pedophile and former Nazi soldier Paul Schäfer in rural Chile. After fleeing West Germany, Schäfer established Colonia Dignidad, where he was able to act with impunity thanks to a close relationship with Pinochet’s dictatorship. Today, survivors try to reconcile their violent past while caught in a struggle for the land that was once their home. Diego Guebel (“Caiga Quien Caiga”) from Boxfish TV produces the limited series.

Another true story, this time from Colombia, “Noticia De Un Secuestro” is based on the homonymous non-fiction book from the country’s greatest writer, Gabriel García Márquez. The story follows a small group of individuals captured by drug lords in 1990, and the efforts their loved ones go through to recover them. Invercine & Wood produce the series, executive produced by Márquez’s son Rodrigo Garcia – an accomplished screenwriter and director in his own right (“Mother and Child”), María Elena Wood (“Dignity,” “Mary & Mike”) Patricio Pereira, siblings Matías and Macarena Cardone, Lourdes Díaz and AGC Television’s Stuart Ford. Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize-winner Andrés Wood (“Violeta Went to Heaven,” “Machuca”) is set to direct.

“We know our Prime Video audiences across Latin America are eager for local shows from the best local voices, and we couldn’t be more excited to introduce these first local series for Argentina, Chile and Colombia that already have some of the most locally renowned directors and talent attached,” said James Farrell, head of international, Amazon Originals, Amazon Studios.

He went on: “And in addition to delighting local audiences, we’re thrilled to be able to bring the work of these talented local writers, directors, producers and actors behind each series to an international audience of more than 100 million Prime members worldwide.”

The four-pack joins an expanding Prime Video catalog in Latin America, which already includes series such as Amazon’s first, from México, “Diablo Guardian,” “LOL: Last One Laughing,” the critical hit “Un Extraño Enemigo,” “El Juego de las Llaves” and “Derbez Family Vacation,” and other upcoming series like “Maradona: Sueño Bendito” and “El Presidente,” another Fabula title.

John Hopewell contributed to this article.

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