If you’re trying to keep track of Netflix’s recent conquest of Latin American digital television, it might be about time to open up a spreadsheet. For those of us who have been keeping tabs, so far we’ve got Club de Cuervos — currently preparing for a second season — The 3% and Ingobernable from Brazil and Mexico, both of which are slated to premiere this year. Then there’s José Padilha’s multilingual, critically acclaimed Narcos, as well as his upcoming Portuguese-language thriller about political corruption in Brazil. And now the post-television empire has gone ahead and taken the next logical step by tapping Argentine cinema legend Daniel Burman to bring its digital roadshow down to the Southern Cone.
Entitled Edha, the upcoming series is billed as a thriller that will take viewers into the glamorous world of fashion and design, coupled with a healthy dose of sex and danger. Edha will follow the titular character: a young, up-and-coming fashion designer who is on the cusp of reaching new a career high when she sparks a passionate relationship with an immigrant-turned-model. From there the show’s official synopsis keeps things ambiguous with phrases like “savage passion” and a “profound desire for revenge,” giving us a general sense of the shows erotic thriller tone without giving away too many plot details.
Those who are familiar with Burman recognize him as one of the principal figures of the New Argentine Cinema movement that ushered in a whole generation of game-changing filmmakers across the country nearly twenty years ago. Unlike many of his colleagues, Burman’s work focused principally on human relationships and Jewish-Argentine culture, imbued a characteristic touch of deadpan comedy. Edha will undoubtedly be a tonal departure for the director of Argentine classics like Lost Embrace and Family Law, but Burman has show himself to be adaptive in the face of the world’s changing media landscape, launching his new production company, Oficina Burman, with a focus specifically on television content.
Edha will begin production in early 2017 with a release date slated for later that same year.