The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the biggest event in the world’s biggest sport, will be held from June 11th to July 19th. There is no doubt that it will be memorable not only for some of the matches, but also for their fans. Few films or series seem to be able to explain the fan phenomenon with as much dramatic intensity and social nuance as Raza Brava.
Produced, written and directed by International Emmy Award winner Hernán Cafiero (“Suspended Tribute”), co-produced by Eric Barmack, former head of Netflix International at Wild Sheep Content, and distributed by Mediapro Studio Distribution, “Laza Brava” was inspired by the footage of a man covered in the blood of his best friend who had just been stabbed in a soccer stadium in Colo-Colo and went viral around the world. This series asks how that can happen, Cafiero says.
Based on a true story, the film begins in 2000 with Carlos standing covered in blood in a police cell. In 1981, in a poor neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, Carlos, a young man, has his sneakers stolen by another child, Clavo. “He must learn to protect himself,” older brother Vladi tells his father.
Set between 1981 and 2000 and narrated by Carlos, “Laza Brava” depicts Carlos’ upbringing in violence, his instinctive anti-authority mindset, and his love for Coro Coro, Chile’s poorest class soccer team.
“My father was intelligent but poor. If you are poor with a conscience, you live between helplessness and suffering. Football was his only freedom,” says Carlos. He added that by joining White Crow, who are huge and hardcore supporters of CoroCoro, “for the first time I felt like the space was my own and I felt respected.” “We were no longer invisible outcasts.” Coro Coro is also a source of big dreams. Won the Copa de Libertadores in 1991. The Latin American club championship “was seen as a milestone in which the town might recover its identity, with a decisive sign that ties could change,” Carlos recalls.
Yes, but not in the way Carlos imagines. In the 1990s, when the mass worker protests in Chile faded away due to the rapid growth of consumer society, and Carlos and Clavo rose to leadership of the White Crow by 1996, the club gave Carlos 2,000 match tickets to use or sell and became a record, magazine, concert and ticket sales business. The White Crow’s sense of brotherhood is replaced by a struggle for power, money, and prestige. For Carlos, it becomes prison. Despite alienating his wife and young daughter, he can’t seem to escape it.
Raza Brava
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“This series works on several levels,” comments Mediapro Studio International Director Javier Esteban. “As Eric comments, there is a historical part of Chile under and after the dictatorship, where two of the world’s greatest passions come together, and it is a series that speaks not only about football, but also about political changes and family. Another important characteristic of this series is its realism and authenticity, including the characters.”
Variety spoke with Cafiero and Vermack ahead of the Berlinale Series Market Select, the 20-series Berlinale Film Festival where Raza Brava will make its market debut.
Your series concludes the year with the FIFA World Cup, which is more than just a match…
Hernán Cafiero: Yes, it’s a mix of soccer, social issues and politics. Treating soccer as a mere spectacle fails to actually understand its true dimensions, what it means to the world past and present: the projection of a team’s victory and a sense of belonging. With so many fans arriving in the US from countries around the world, it will definitely be one to talk about.
“Lasa Brava” very well captures the fusion of individuals, clubs and even Chile when it comes to Coro Coro. When Colo Colo played Boca in the 1991 Latin American club championship, the Copa de Libertadores, “Lasa Brava” indicated that the fans felt or were hoping that this could be the beginning of a new era…
Cafiero: “After Pinochet left power, the violent repression of the Chilean people ended, but the feeling of a new spring never really reached most people. Or the closest one felt was in Colo Colo: a victory for the people, embodied in a soccer team that became, for the first time in history, the best in something as popular and large-scale as soccer.”
This victory was very important because of the events that occurred in 1973….
Cafiero: In 1973, Colo Colo made it to the finals, but lost in the second playoff game to a robbery. This opened the door to the darkest part of what happened in Chile three months later. Since that defeat, there has been an enduring link between football, society, politics, violence and exclusion, not only in Chile but also in South America and other regions where poverty and exclusion are even greater, such as Morocco, Turkey, Algeria and Italy’s Naples. The series turns it on.
Eric, you said that “Laza Brava” is about combining two of the world’s greatest passions: football and entertainment.
Eric Barmack: The world is becoming increasingly global. Wake up in the morning and watch the series and 100 different football matches from 100 locations around the world. There’s more noise and content on YouTube than ever before. But when you look at a club like Colo Colo, you see that the passion is genuine and global in nature. Over 20 million people have watched or felt some kind of connection to Coro Coro, and that connection can’t be faked. In a world where deepfakes are increasingly common and questions arise about what content represents, this project, and football itself, taps into something real. This is one of the few that truly stands out on a global level.
One way a series can connect globally is through genre, and another is by portraying universal emotions. They become trapped in the abnormal reality of “Raza Brava”…
Cafiero: While most film and television soccer titles focus on the title or the competition for a particular player’s life, “Laza Brava” focuses on social and political identity, a social phenomenon found all over the world.
Mr. Barmack: Professional football was born in industrial England, which was formed by working-class communities and factory towns. The story of soccer has been intertwined with social struggles since the beginning. Although things look different today, that relationship (born through industrialization) has never disappeared. What Hernán is doing in “Laza Brava” is similar to “City of God.” We’ve all seen documentaries about football teams that isolate the club from the social forces around them, making one feel flat because you can’t have one without the other.
Raza Brava
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