In addition to the new series from City of God directors Fernando Meirelles and Cesar Charrone, Netflix’s Spanish-language megahit Desperate Lies creator Angela Chávez and Sissy co-writer Robert Krauss will be featured in a powerful first-series match that brings together producers from Germany, Latin America, and Spain.
Organized by the Iberseries & Platino Industria y Berlinale Series Market, the Series Match will take place on February 16th: Germany and Ibero-America will host a series of undoubted ambitions by ambitious companies. Berlin-based SKP, which adapted Spain’s Poquita Fe for Germany, is expanding into premium genre-driven limited series with international ambition and event-scale storytelling, the company says. “Monika is being built as a premium international event series,” says Zeitprung producer Gala Souvigne.
These are often genre-specific series, but they are substantive series that are well thought out on an industry and thematic level.
“Assassins in Paradise embraces the idea that you can escape geography, but you can’t escape yourself,” says producer Paula Taborda dos Guaranis.
“Through the lens of a psychological thriller, we explore how inherited myths shape identity and how the past persists within contemporary Europe and Latin America. ‘Scorched Earth’ aims to combine genre tension with emotional and historical depth,” director and producer Juan Ignacio Sabatini and producer Juan Pablo Salato said in Villano, Chile.
A closer look at most titles reveals the following:
“El Abuso” (Alternative Media, Federation Spain, Ojo Films)
City of God cinematographer Cesar Charlone and co-director Fernando Meirelles have teamed up again to tell the dramatic true story of the 1971 prison escape of 101 political prisoners from the legendary urban guerrilla group Tupamaros. Among them was Pepe Mujica, who later became president of Uruguay. The screenplay was written by Los Angeles-based Ojo Films’ Mariana Santangelo, star of “In This Tricky Life.” The top line of “Abso” with Platino Award-winning “Society of Snow” actor Enzo Vogrinčić will be presented in a series match by Uruguayan Alternative Media, led by Natalia Oreiro and Joaquín Romero Vercellino (“Punta Blanca”) and “La Noche Sin Mi” co-director Maria Laura Belch.
“Assassins in Paradise” (Mobioca, Galaxy Stories)
A German hitman couple arrive in Bahia in search of one last job. A spiritual awakening and a tropical paradise tempt them to reinvent themselves as restaurant owners. But when the local police force shuts down, their instincts draw them back to a life on the run. “A sun-drenched action thriller flavored with humor, spirituality and the unmistakable flavor of Bahia,” said creator Bruno Bloch (“BO”). Produced by Brazil’s Movioca, the flagship format export hit “Drag Me as a Queen” was co-produced with NBCUniversal for E!. and Barcelona’s Ginga Stories, a premium joint professional specialist in Europe and Latin America.
“Callback” (cable film, left tackle film)
Funicular Films’ second project in the Berlinale series market (“This Is Not Sweden”). He also pitched “Robbery, Assault, and Death” in the Co-Pro series. Here, he is partnering with the recently launched Left Tackle, led by Esther Cabrero and Alberto Quintella, on a project by Joana Vilapuig and Mireia Vilapuig, who broke out as creators with their semi-autobiographical work Self-Tape. In Callback, 30-year-old director Fran publicly accuses a producer and lead actor of abuse just before the premiere of his feature debut at a European film festival. “We question the purpose of public shaming and cancellation when the purpose is to build a more just and equal world,” Sister Vairapuig points out.
“Monica – Victory and Death” (Zeitsprung Pictures, Mariawood Producciones, Fine Time Filmproduktion)
An amazing dramatized true story about the life and death of Monika Ertl, the daughter of Leni Riefenstahl’s lover. She turned as a guerrilla avenger, shooting Che Guevara’s killers and attempting to kidnap Klaus Barbie in a political and personal vendetta. A strong production and talent package with Cologne-based Zeitprung Pictures, Peter Rohner of Beta Film co-founder Fine Time, Veronica Triana, co-creator of Netflix’s Delirium, Maria Elena Wood, creator and producer of Kidnapping News, and Robert Krauss, co-lead screenwriter of Sissy.
“The Runaway” (SKP Ent.)
Directed by Joseph Rusnak, director of Roland Emmerich’s Centropolis, the sci-fi thriller Thirteenth Floor, the film depicts the real-life experiences of Detlef Kowalewski, a 1980s German heavy metal guitarist turned prison escape artist who eventually fled to Brazil. “I’ve always been drawn to great adventure stories, but when I read Joseph’s interpretation of Detlef Kowalewski’s memoir, especially the prison dialogue and how to build loyalty from within, I knew this was more than just an escape story,” says producer Alexander Kale. “This is a story about a man who turns himself into a legend and the cost of believing in his own myth. That’s when I knew I was in that position.”
“Scorched Earth” (Villano)
Born in Villano, Chile, where “The Red Hunger” is located in Berlin’s prestigious Perspectives Strand. “A young photographer travels to southern Chile to investigate the origins of her family’s fortune built through German colonization. As she confronts the legendary crimes of her great-aunt, known as ‘Nero’s Woman,’ long-buried violence begins to resurface,” the synopsis reads. “‘Scorched Earth’ is a psychological noir drama that explores how personal family mythology masks collective historical trauma.” Created by Paula del Fierro and Enrique Videla, the main writers of La Jauría. The project has a completed pilot first draft and an expanded series bible.
“Seven Women” (Boutique Films, Brazil)
Creator Angela Chavez, whose “Desperate Lies” was Netflix’s No. 1 non-English-speaking world in 2024, is teaming up with Boutique, Netflix’s first big break in non-English-speaking countries following 2016’s “3%.” A reimagining of Brazilian Leticia Wieszczowski’s 2002 novel, which inspired Globo magazine’s “A Casa das Sete Mulheres,” it has been sold to more than 80 countries and remains hostile to the female relatives of Bento Gonçalves, a rebel leader sent to his family’s ranch during Brazil’s Ragamuffin Revolution of 1835-1845. But they will be seen from a “contemporary perspective that emphasizes the voices and freedom journeys of the female protagonists,” says the boutique’s Mariana Coelho.
