Happy Friday! This week’s “global TV to watch” includes the top ten Amazon Original non-English-language titles of the past year.
Prime Video recently announced the record-breaking international success of My Fault and Medellin, two of the most recent Amazon Original Films that launched internationally — becoming the biggest traveling non-English language local Original titles in Prime Video history. Both movies are in Prime Video’s Top 10 globally most-watched non-English language local Original films and series of the past year (based on opening 3-day viewing figures and performance outside of their country of origin). Details about the Top 10, all of which are currently available for streaming globally on Prime Video, are below.
1. My Fault (Culpa Mía, Movie, Spain, released June 2023)
Based on Mercedes Ron’s best-selling “Culpables” book trilogy, My Fault is a drama that follows 17-year-old Noah (Nicole Wallace, Parot), who is forced to move with her mother, Rafaela (Marta Hazas, Velvet Colección), to the mansion of William Leister (Iván Sánchez, You Cannot Hide), Rafaela’s rich, new husband. Here Noah meets and immediately clashes with her stepbrother, Nick (Gabriel Guevara, HIT), whom she discovers is hiding a life of fights, gambling, and illegal car racing behind his model-son image, stuff she is totally against. However, both begin to feel an irresistible attraction that turns into unbridled passion for each other, and neither their rivalry nor their environment will be able to prevent them from ending up lost and secretly in love. But Nick’s troubled present, coupled with Noah’s troubled past, will test both of their lives and their forbidden love.
2. Medellin (Medellín, Movie, France, released June 2023)
Set in Colombia, action-comedy Medellin follows Pablito (Brahim Bouhlel, Validé), a young YouTuber fascinated by Pablo Escobar, who makes his dream come true by flying to Medellín to walk in the notorious drug lord’s footsteps. A few days later, a video is posted on social media, showing that a group of dangerous narcos has kidnapped Pablito and will only release him for a substantial ransom. But they don’t know that Pablito has a big brother, Reda (Ramzy Bedia, Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom), who comes up with a crazy plan: put together a team of underdogs and go head-to-head with the cartel members in Colombia to get his little brother home safe and sound. But their adventure spirals out of control when Reda decides to kidnap the cartel leader’s son in exchange for his brother’s life.
3. Sayen (Movie, Chile, released March 2023)
Action-packed thriller Sayen follows Sayen (Rallen Montenegro, No Nos Quieren Ver), a Mapuche woman who is on a mission to avenge the murder of her grandmother. With her knowledge of nature and her surroundings, combined with her survival training, Sayen hunts down the killers. In the process she uncovers a dangerous conspiracy led by an international corporation, which is destroying the land of her family and her people and ravaging the local ecosystems throughout Chile. So Sayen ups the stakes to bring these people to justice and to save her family’s legacy.
4. A Private Affair (Un Asunto Privado, TV Series, Spain, released September 2022)
Set in Galicia in the late 1940s, mystery-crime dramedy series A Private Affair stars Aura Garrido (The Innocent, The Ministry of Time) as Marina Quiroga, a daring young upper-class woman with the soul of a policeman, who sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking the city for months. Assisting her is her faithful butler, Hector (Jean Reno, Léon: The Professional, The Visitors), a discreet and helpful man whose sensitivity and audacity always place him at the key point of the investigation. Together, Marina and Hector face whatever obstacles they encounter in their quest to nab the multiple murderer — and neither the gender prejudices of the time, the resistance of the new commissioner, nor the attempts by Marina’s mother to marry her off, will prevent them from discovering the truth.
5. The Gryphon (Der Greif, TV Series, Germany, released May 2023)
Based on the global best-selling fantasy novel Der Greif by Wolfgang Hohlbein, fantasy drama The Gryphon is set in 1994 in Krefeld, Germany, where three misfit friends — Mark (Jeremias Meyer, We Children from Bahnhof Zoo), Memo (Zoran Pingel, The Island), and Becky (Lea Drinda, We Children from Bahnhof Zoo) — discover a dark and dangerous world called the Black Tower. It is here that the gryphon, a vicious, world-devouring monster, mercilessly subjugates all living beings. Mark discovers that he is the only one who can defeat the gryphon, but he’s no hero and doesn’t want to be one. However, when Mark’s brother, Thomas (Theo Trebs, Tatort: Streets of Berlin), goes missing, the trio must venture into the world of the Black Tower and face danger to save him.
6. Overdose (Movie, France, released November, 2022)
Action-crime thriller Overdose stars Sofia Essaïdi (Women at War, The Promise) as Sara Bellaïche, the head of the Toulouse Police narcotics squad, who investigates a go-fast between Spain and France after being tipped off by her former lover, Reynal (Nicolas Cazalé, The Boarding School: Las Cumbres, The Crimson Rivers), who has infiltrated the gang. Meanwhile, Richard Cross (Assaad Bouab, Call My Agent!, Bad Sisters), head of the crime squad in Paris, begins an investigation into the murder of two teenagers at the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital. When a gang member is killed during a shootout with the Guarda Civil in Catalonia, Sara discovers that her case is linked to the two hospital murders. Forced to work together to both find the murderer and stop the go-fast, Sara and Richard find themselves in a race against time as their attraction to each other grows.
7. The Head of Joaquín Murrieta (La Cabeza de Joaquín Murrieta, TV Series, Mexico, released February 2023)
Set on the new frontier between Mexico and the United States in 1851, a period fueled by greed, anger, and xenophobia, in the midst of all-out war due to the California Gold Rush, western series The Head of Joaquín Murrieta follows the adventures of two Mexican men — Joaquín Murrieta (Juan Manuel Bernal, Monarca, Capadocia), a legendary figure also known as the Mexican Robin Hood, and Joaquín Carrillo (Alejandro Speitzer, Dark Desire, Someone Has to Die), one of a group of immigrants fighting the lawless war — who join forces to battle a common enemy: the gringo Harry Love (Steve Wilcox, Station 19, Sons of Anarchy).
8. Fakes (Farzi, TV Series, India, released February 2023)
A cat-and-mouse crime thriller, Fakes follows two men: One is Sunny (Shahid Kapoor, Jersey, Haider), a brilliant graphic artist and small-time con artist who gets catapulted into the murky but high-stakes world of counterfeiting when he creates the perfect fake currency note. The other is Michael (Vijay Sethupathi, Vikram, 96), a fiery, unorthodox task force officer who’s on a mission to rid the country of counterfeiting and the menace it poses.
9. Gangs of Lagos (Movie, Nigeria, released April 2023)
Gangs of Lagos is a gritty and hard-hitting action-crime thriller that revolves around a group of childhood friends, each of whom must navigate their destiny as they grow up on the bustling streets and neighborhood of Isale Eko, Lagos. The cast includes Tobi Bakre (The Blood Covenant), Adesua Etomi-Wellington (Muna), and Chike Osebuka (Life As It Is).
10. Argentina 1985 (Movie, Argentina, released October 2022)
A 2023 Academy Award® nominee for Best International Feature Film, and the 2023 Golden Globe Award winner for Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language, historical drama Argentina 1985 is inspired by the true story of Julio Strassera (Ricardo Darín, Heroic Losers, Truman), Luis Moreno Ocampo (Peter Lanzani, The Kingdom, La Leona), and their team of young legal heroes, who, against all odds, engaged in a David-vs-Goliath battle by prosecuting the heads of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s to bring justice to the victims of the military junta.
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