Featuring Mapuche Heroine, Chilean Amazon Original Action Film ‘Sayen’ Premieres On Prime Video

Just like other U.S. global streamers, Amazon’s Prime Video sees the value in supporting and promoting Latin American and Spanish-language original films and series, with subject matter that not only strikes a chord with audiences where they’re produced but that can also resonate globally.

One of its new offerings for March is the Amazon original film Sayen, an action-packed thriller about a Mapuche woman who uncovers a dangerous conspiracy led by an international corporation that is ravaging local ecosystems throughout Chile. Willing to do anything to gain access to valuable cobalt deposits, they harass, threaten and even kill indigenous populations who stand in their way.

After her family refuses to sell their property, considered Mapuche sacred land, Sayen witnesses her grandmother’s murder and makes it her mission to hunt them down, bring them to justice and save her family’s legacy.

Starring Rallen Montenegro (Inés del Alma Mía) as Sayen, the film is almost reminiscent of the 2022 action flick Prey, in that both have indigenous heroines battling predators to save their people.

Directed by Alexander Witt (Resident Evil: Apocalypse) and produced by Chilean production company Fábula and the Academy Award-winning team of Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín and Rocío Jadue (A Fantastic Woman, Jackie, Gloria Bell, Neruda), Sayen is the first chapter of an action trilogy.

“As a production house we like challenges, and in the case of Sayen, making an action trilogy starring a Mapuche woman—Rallen Montenegro—who must face extreme situations in a wild natural environment throughout Chile, meant deploying all our ingenuity and knowledge to tell a story with the quality that the public demands”, says Jadue, executive director of Fábula’s Spanish-language movies.

Fans of Spanish series Casa de Papel (Money Heist) and Elite, available on Netflix, will recognize some of the film’s supporting cast: Enrique Arce, “Arturito” and Roberto García Ruiz, “Oslo” from Money Heist and Arón Piper, who portrays Ander Muñoz on Elite. Others include Alejandro Trejo (Taxi para Tres), Loreto Aravena (Los 80), Eduardo Paxeco (A Fantastic Woman), Teresa Ramos (Antofagasta), Roberto Cayuqueo (Neruda), and Camilo Arancibia (Inés del Alma Mía).

Sayen is Chile’s latest local content announced by Prime video, following other critically acclaimed titles such as Desconectados, Los Sobrevivientes: Colonia Dignidad, and La Jauría.

“It’s so exciting to bring the story of Sayen, the first Chilean action trilogy, to our customers in Chile and around the world,” says Javiera Balmaceda, head of Local Originals for Latin America, Canada, and Australia, Amazon Studios. “Our audience will immerse themselves into the incredible landscape of Patagonia through the eyes of a Sayen, who is fighting to bring justice for her family,”

Sayen premieres globally on Amazon Prime Video on March 3.