Streaming service Netflix is set to release its first Philippine-produced show on April 9 and it’s going to be about a truly local story that the whole world is already engrossed in — President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called war on drugs.
Amo (Boss), is a fictional miniseries by award-winning Filipino director Brillante Mendoza and tells the story of high school student Joseph, a small-time shabu (meth) peddler who gets involved in the conflict between drug lords, corrupt police officers, and government officials.
Although not based on a true story, Amo‘s plot is based on incidents that will be familiar to anyone who has been following the police’s anti-narcotics operations since the war on drugs started.
The show was produced by TV5 and was set to be released by the network in August last year, but that never happened after TV5 decided to focus on sports programming. The 12-episode series starring newcomer Vince Rillon and Derek Ramsay was acquired by Netflix and will now be released on their global platform instead.
“We at TV5 are excited to finally be able to share AMO with everyone. Brillante has done a beautiful job in bringing paper to life, and the show’s acquisition provides an additional platform to help share the first-ever Filipino series on Netflix to a worldwide audience,” TV5 President Vincent “Chot” Reyes said in a statement.
This isn’t TV5’s first foray into online content. In 2015, it launched Digital5, its online programming division, and D5 Studio, which produces original digital-first or digital-exclusive shows like Forever Sucks, Office Dramalala, and The Complex.
Mendoza’s last film Ma’ Rosa, which also tackled the issue of illegal drugs in the Philippines, earned its lead Jaclyn Jose a Best Actress award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Mendoza, whose films often premiere at the festival, won the Best Director prize in 2009 for his film Kinatay (Butchered, The Execution of P)
Watch the trailer of Amo below:
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