In a pioneering collaboration with Latin America, Spain’s Movistar Plus is teaming with Chile’s Wood Producciones and Spain’s Atlantika Films to make “Patagonia,” starring Itziar Ituño.

As already announced, Germany’s ZDF Studios handles international distribution. 

Currently shooting in the south of Chile, the new Movistar Plus series turns on Alicia (Ituño) whose son Noah (Unai Arana) disappears without trace in Chile’s Patagonia. She flies from her native Bizkaia to try to find him, encountering in Patagonia a wild land of ancient forests and illegal logging mafias. 

“Her search becomes a desperate race where each clue reveals new threats and old family wounds,” the synopsis ends. 

“Patagonia” is described by Movistar Plus as “melding eco-thriller elements and a powerful and universal family drama.”

The series initiated production in April in Hornopirén, the northern gateway to Patagonia and home to millennial alerce tree forests. It will continue there until the end of May when it transfers to the Basque Country for two weeks. 

“This is an intense and emotional story, set in a place of breathtaking beauty,” said Ituño. Alicia begins her desperate search for her adolescent son in a wild, unknown territory, confronting her own guilt and fears. Shot in Chile’s Patagonia by a team from different cultures and nationalities, this has been a impactful experience.”

“‘Patagonia’ is born from the necessity to tell a profoundly human story in one of the most moving and extreme territories on the planet,” noted María Elena Wood. 

“The series exposes the fragility of human bonds faced by nature, power and survival. An emotional thriller which challenges its characters to transform their visions of the world to find what they are looking for,” she added.

Since at least “Hierro,” Movistar Plus has made series with international partners. What marks “Patagonia” apart, as one of its first series with Latin American partners, is that its creators are Chilean: María Elena Wood and Patricia Pereira. Doyenne of Chilean TV producers and a pioneer of premium series production in Chile, María Elena Wood’s multiple credits include Platino Prize best series winner “News of a Kidnapping,” “Dignity” and “Ramon.” Pereira was a producer of “Mary & Mike” and “Dignity” as well as the movies directed by Maria Elena Wood’s brother Andrés Wood from 2004’s “Machuca” to 2019’s “Spider” (“Araña”). 

“Patagonia” is backed by not only Spain’s Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, the government of Bilbao and environs Basque province, but also Chile’s CNTV, its governmental TV agency, and Televisión Nacional de Chile, the country’s public broadcaster.

Rodrigo Susarte (“Gen Mishima,” “Invunche”), most latterly director of breakout high-concept sci-fi thriller “Hidden Island,” a title at 2026’s Berlinale Series Market Selects, is directing all six episodes of “Patagonia.” It is written by Luis Barrales (“Mary & Mike”) and Anastasia Ayazi (“My Sad Dead”).

Key cast takes in Kandido Uranga (“Maspalomas”), Pablo Macaya (“42 Days of Darkness”), Marcelo Alonso (“El club”), Sara Becker (“The House of the Spirits”), Trinidad González (“A Fantastic Woman”) and Patricia Cuyul (“Spider”).

“Patagonia” is produced by María Elena Wood and Pereira and Atlantika’s Nano Arrieta and Claudia Ruiz who co-produced Fernando Trueba’s standout animated feature “They Shot the Piano Player” as well as feature “Haunted Heart.”

Production oversight is shared with ZDF Studios’ Sebastián Krekeler, Susanne Frank and Peter Nadermann plus Cristina Merino at Movistar Plus. 

“‘Patagonia’ represents a new way of producing international fiction: A series uniting financing, creative talent and production from Europe and Latin America to create a show with truly global ambition,” said Atlantika Films’ Arrieta, an executive producer on the series. “This is a model which not only spreads risk, but amplifies the reach of a series with local identity and worldwide resonance.”

The series marks “many of the qualities we look for in the projects we develop: a story with a point of view which is contemporary and universal whose moral dilemmas grip us as spectators; and a talented, committed international team with a boundless passion to carry it out and defend the series,” said Merino, executive producer at Movistar Plus. 

“For TVN, it’s especially valuable forming part of a series which centers on territories, people and conflicts which are deeply linked to the south of Chile and with a contemporary vision capable of connecting massively with local and international audiences,” added Javier Goldschmied, TVN programming director.