New series from the “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles and DP Cesar Charlone, plus Angela Chaves, creator of Netflix Spanish-language mega-hit “Desperate Lies,” and “Sissi” co-head writer Robert Krause feature at a high-powered first Series Match, uniting German, Latin American and Spanish producers.
Organized by Iberseries & Platino Industria y Berlinale Series Market, and taking place Feb. 16, Series Match: Germany and Ibero-America hosts series of undoubted ambition made by often ambitious companies. Having adapted Spain’s “Poquita Fe” for Germany, Berlin-based SKP is expanding, it says, into premium genre-driven limited series with international ambition and event-scale storytelling. “‘Monika’ is built as a premium international event series,” says Zeitsprung producer Gala Souvignier.
These are often genre series, but they are series of substance, thought through at industry and thematic level.
“‘Assassins in Paradise’ plays with the idea that you can escape geography, but not yourself,” says producer Paula Taborda dos Guaranys.
“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’ seeks to combine genre tension with emotional and historical depth,” say director-producer Juan Ignacio Sabatini and producer Juan Pablo Sallato at Chile’s Villano.
A closer look at most of the titles:
“El Abuso,” (Alterna Media, Federation Spain, Ojo Films)
“City” of God” DP Cesar Charlone and co-director Fernando Meirelles re-team for the true story of the dramatic 1971 jailbreak of 101 political prisoners from the Tupamaros, a legendary urban guerrilla group, including Pepe Mújica, who later became President of Uruguay. Written by L.A.-based Ojo Films’ Mariana Santangelo, star of “In This Tricky Life,” toplining Platino Award-winning “Society of the Snow” actor Enzo Vogrincic and “Abuso” is presented at Series Match by Uruguay’s Alterna Media, headed by Maria Laura Berch, co-director of “La Noche Sin Mí” with Natalia Oreiro and Joaquín Romero Vercellino (“Punta Blanca”).
“Assassins in Paradise” (Movioca, Ginga Stories)
A married couple of German hitmen reach Bahia for one final job. A spiritual awakening and the tropical paradise tempt them to reinvent themselves as restaurant owners. Yet, their instincts, as local cops close down, pull them back toward the life they’re escaping. “A sun‑drenched action thriller, seasoned with humor, spirituality and the unmistakable flavor of Bahia,” says creator Bruno Bloch (“B.O”). Produced by Brazil’s Movioca, behind flagship format export hit “Drag Me as a Queen,” co-produced with NBC Universal for E! and Barcelona’s Ginga Stories, a premium Europe-Latin America co-pro specialist.
“Callback,” (Funicular Films, Left Tackle Films)
The second project at Berlinale Series Market from Funicular Films (“This Is Not Sweden”), also pitching “Robbery, Beating and Death” at Co-Pro Series. Here, it teams with recently launched Left Tackle, headed by Esther Cabrero and Albert Quintela, on a project from Joana and Mireia Vilapuig who broke out as creators with the semi-autobiographical “Selftape.” In “Callback,” at a European film festival, just before her debut feature’s premiere, 30-year-old director Fran publicly accuses her producer and lead actor of abuse. “We question the purpose of public shaming and cancellation when the goal is to build a fairer, more equal world,” the Vailapuig sisters note.
“Monika – Victory and Death,” (Zeitsprung Pictures, Mariawood Producciones, Fine Time Filmproduktion)
The extraordinary dramatized true story of the life and death of Monika Ertl, daughter of Leni Riefenstahl’s lover, who, converted in guerrillero-avenger shoots dead Che Guevara’s killer in a political and personal vendetta and attempts to kidnap Klaus Barbie. A robust production and talent package taking in Cologne-based Zeitsprung Pictures, Peter Lohner at Beta Film co-established Fine Time, Verónica Triana, co-creator of Netflix’s “Delirium,” María Elena Wood, creator and producer of “News of a Kidnapping,” and “Sissi” co-head writer Robert Krause.
“The Runaway,” (SKP Ent.)
To be helmed by Josef Rusnak, behind sci-fi thriller “The Thirteenth Floor,” from Roland Emmerich’s Centropolis, the real life story of Detlef Kowalewski, 1980s German heavy metal guitarist turned prison breakout artist, finally fleeing to Brazil. “I’ve always been drawn to great adventure stories. But when I read Josef’s take on Detlef Kowalewski’s memoir — especially the prison dialogues and the way he builds loyalty from inside — I realized this wasn’t just a prison-break story,” says producer Alexander Keil. “It’s about a man turning himself into a legend and the cost of believing his own myth. That’s when I knew I was in.”
“Scorched Earth,” (Villano)
From Chile’s Villano, which has “The Red Hanger” at Berlin’s prestigious Perspectives strand. “A young photographer travels to southern Chile to investigate the origins of her family’s fortune, built via German colonization. As she confronts the legendary crime of her great-aunt, known as ‘The Nero Woman,’ long-buried violence begins to resurface,” says the synopsis. “‘Scorched Earth’ is a psychological noir drama that explores how private family myths conceal collective historical trauma,” it adds. Created by Paula del Fierro and Enrique Videla, key writers on “La Jauría.” The project has a completed first draft of the pilot and an expanded series bible.
“Seven Women,” (Boutique Filmes, Brazil)
Uniting creator Angela Chaves whose “Desperate Lies” was a Netflix’s Non-English global No. 1 in 2024, and Boutique, behind 2016’s “3%,” Netflix’s first big non-English international breakout. A reimagining of Brazilian Letícia Wierzchowski’s 2002 novel which inspired Globo’s “A Casa das Sete Mulheres,” sold to over 80 countries which still turns on the women relatives of rebel leader Bento Gonçalves, dispatched to the family ranch during Brazil’s 1835-45 Ragamuffin Revolution. But they will be seen from a “contemporary perspective in which the voices of the female protagonists are highlighted, as well as their journeys of freedom,” says Boutique’s Mariana Coelho.