Netflix’s latest Spanish-language mini-series, “I’m Not Afraid,” is a harrowing tale about the cruelties of poverty and the loss of childhood innocence. The first television adaptation of Niccolò Ammaniti’s 2003 novel “I’m Not Scared” is told from the perspective of a 10-year-old Miguel (Aldo Emiliano Navarro). The series depicts the anguish of an interrupted boyhood and the awakening of a child’s conscience as their safest spaces erode.
“I Am Not Afraid” opens in a small rural village in Mexico in 1986. Miguel and his younger sister María (Regina Arroyo) spend their days playing soccer with their cousin Chuy (Bruno Strauss) and other neighborhood children. Money is tight, especially since a plague has devastated the coffee harvest and destroyed the livelihoods of Miguel’s parents, Pino (Luis Alberti) and Teresa (Fátima Molina). Yet, Miguel is still joyous and carefree. The young boy’s biggest concern is staying out of the crosshairs of Calavera (Mauro Guzmán), the neighborhood bully who seems destined to follow the same path as his intimidating older brother, Felix (Cosmo Gonzalez).
It’s through Felix that the children hear the story of the evil witch who lives in the forest, murdering and eating little kids. Miguel is initially apprehensive about Felix’s witch fable, but as odd things begin to happen in his community, he begins to understand something sinister is indeed amiss. First, Miguel is puzzled when Chuy and his parents, Rosalío (Fernando Cuautl) and Margarita (Leidi Gutiérrez), abruptly leave town without warning. Yet things truly take a turn one day after Miguel stumbles upon a boy, Felipe (Yago Andreu), chained beneath the old water tank near the witch’s old, run-down house.
With his father out of town at work, and his mother overwhelmed with money problems and keeping María’s chronic asthma under control, Miguel takes matters into his own hands. He begins bringing Felipe food and water while keeping him informed about Mexico’s status in the World Cup. However, when he discovers he doesn’t have the strength or tools to break his new friend free from the chain around his leg, Miguel decides to confide in Calavera, the strongest boy he knows.
The six-episode limited series (critics received three episodes for review) showcases how tender childhood is. After finding Felipe, Miguel takes it upon himself to care for his new friend, even sacrificing precious television time. Feeling the tension of his parents’ financial pressures, despite their attempts to hide them, Miguel tries to resolve the conundrum of Felipe’s sudden appearance himself, which eventually unearths a can of worms no one could have anticipated.
Episode 3, “The Worm Man,” shifts all of the pieces of the story into place, shattering Miguel’s childlike whimsy and sense of safety in its wake. Though the varied clues slowly begin coming together for him, the look of horror and fear on Miguel’s face as he realizes who is behind Felipe’s kidnapping is deeply searing and painful. It is a revelation no child should be privy to.
“I’m Not Afraid” maintains its tension through its non-linear timeline. The series opens after Felipe has already been placed in the water tank. It then moves back and forth in time between 1981 and the moment just before Miguel discovers the boy and his broken glasses. Just five years prior, the village was flourishing with a robust coffee bean harvest. Tragically, fortunes turned when the crops had to be burned, drying up the area’s only significant resource. In unveiling the community as it was and juxtaposing it to the present, the series illustrates what lack and desperation can do to seemingly normal people.
An exhilarating coming-of-age tale with a mystery at its center, “I’m Not Afraid” is a beautiful depiction of the delights of childhood and how quickly and callously that essence can be shattered by the greed and volatility of adults. Moreover, the series unpacks the heartwrenching realities of social inequity and how desperation can transform into shocking acts of violence.
“I’m Not Afraid” is now streaming on Netflix.