The year is 1968. The place: Mexico. Remembered both for the summer Olympics hosted by Mexico City as well as for the student protests that culminated in the Tlatelolco massacre, it remains a watershed year in the country’s history. Such events, already ripe for dramatic reenactments, will play backdrop to Amazon’s new Spanish-language series, Un Extraño Enemigo. Described as a political thriller that tells a fictional story set against that historic moment, the drama will be directed by Gabriel Ripstein (600 miles) and will follow Comandante Barrientos (Daniel Giménez Cacho, most recently seen in Zama), a brilliant man with a dark side that started from the bottom and now seeks to expand his power during a critical election year in Mexico.
Each of the eight episodes of the show will juxtapose Barrientos’ journey with the larger sociopolitical moments taking place across the country. Joining Giménez Cacho are Kristyan Ferrer (La Habitación), Antonio de la Vega (Club de Cuervos), Karina Gidi (Falco) and Fernando Becerrill (Sr. Ávila), among others. While no more details or character descriptions are yet available, Amazon has released a teaser that, with just the image of a red and black flag, uses a recording of a man urging everyone to fight the current repressive and authoritarian regime and to head out to the August 27 march at El Zócalo in Mexico City. It’s a powerful call to arms that primes audiences for what is shaping up to be — along with Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma and Alonso Ruizpalacio‘s Museo — a fall season full of pulsing retellings of contemporary Mexican history.
Un Extraño Enemigo premieres on the 50th anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre October 2, 2018, exclusively on Amazon.