Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Wild District’ On Netflix, A Colombian Drama About An Assassin Going Undercover

The recent history of Colombia is rife with stories about drugs, corruption and violence. But, in reality, folks in the States don’t know a whole lot about the country and those who are trying to stem the tide of all three problems. Wild District, a fictional story based on true events, gives a little bit of insight into this country, but wraps it in an action-packed spy thriller. Read on to find out more…

WILD DISTRICT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An overhead shot of trees, with woodland noises in the background. But then we eventually see buildings, and a graphic tells us that we’re looking at Bogotá, Colombia, in the present day.

The Gist: A man named Jhon is being moved through the National Reintegration Institute. He’s a guerrilla, with Colombia’s long-established anti-government rebel army, who is going for another round of interrogation. After two months, though, no one has been able to find out anything about his identity.

An intelligence officer named Caldera (Juan Fernando Sánchez), an expert in FARC guerrilla warfare, knows exactly who it is: his name is Jhon Jeiver Trujillo (Juan Pablo Raba), aka Yei Yei, an part of an elite rebel unit that was trained from childhood to be experts in combat and avoiding the authorities. There have been a series of assassinations of government officials, and Caldera has convinced the prosecutor of the case, Daniela León (Cristina Umaña), to have Jhon Jeiver re-infiltrate his old group in order to gather intelligence.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn that not only did Jhon Jeiver get taken from his mother 26 years ago to get trained in the rebel army, he was also the right hand to the area’s de factor leader, Aníbal (Juan Sebastián Calero), a bloodthirsty guerrilla who was captured by the rebels the same day John Jeiver was. We also find out that he surrendered to the army in the hopes of reuniting with his mother and his son Mario (Nicolás Quiroga Pineda), who came out of a relationship he had with a tourist who was captured by the rebels.

In exchange for his participation, he’s reunited with his mother and son, but his son wants nothing to do with him. Meanwhile, Aníbal has spies tracking Jhon Jeiver down so he can exact his revenge on his former friend for deserting the group.

Our Take: What we find interesting about Wild District (or Distrito Salvaje) is that we’re not quite sure where it’s going at first. We think that it might be about the Re-integration center, or maybe about the intelligence officer Caldera or León, the prosecutor. But within the first 10 minutes, we figure out that the show is really about Jhon Jeiver, his life as a reluctant guerrilla, how he tries to get back to something resembling a normal life while going undercover in the very group he deserted.

It’s an interesting dynamic, and Raba, who is best known in the states for playing Gustavo Gaviria in Narcos, plays it well. Yes, he’s an assassin, as we see when two intelligence agents, Colonel Rama (Julio Pachón) and Agent Giselle Duque (Camila Sodi), try to get an idea of how controllable he can be. But he’s also in a lot of pain due to what he put his family through over the past quarter-century, and we can see him trying to get out of the old life and get to know his son, even while the government is getting him to infiltrate the rebel group committing the assassinations. It’ll be an interesting tightrope to see him walk going forward.

The rest of the first episode is well-acted, well-written and well-directed. It’s based on true events but the characters are fictional; even so, it shines an interesting light on Colombia’s struggle to get past its reputation as a drug-riddled, corruption-filled nation. It’ll be fascinating to see how the show portrays the rebel group going forward, given that even violent leaders like Aníbal are trying to topple a government they think isn’t working.

Sex and Skin: All business in the first episode.

Parting Shot: We see Aníbal in the city, looking for Jhon Jeiver at the Territorial Integration Department.

Sleeper Star: Camila Sodi as Agent Duque has a backstory we may or may not get to know. She mentions that she returned from Mexico to take on this detail, which means that she was likely undercover, maybe with the cartels in that country. We’ll see if they explore that more going forward.

Most Pilot-y Line: Aníbal calls Bogotá “a city full of corrupt rats, sold-out guerrillas, sons of bitches, and thugs.” This tells you where he thinks he stands, even though he’s no better than the people he talks about. Seems a little on the nose.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Good performances highlight Wild District, and it gives a view of a country that a lot of people in North America don’t know much about.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Wild District on Netflix