{ "id": "ep6qzh5pe7", "slug": "green-frontier", "title": "Green Frontier", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted", "label": "Unscripted, reality, and web-native series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_web_native", "label": "Web-native and streaming-original series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_web_native" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_web_native.horror_thriller_scifi_webseries", "label": "Genre web series: horror, thriller, science fiction, and mystery", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_web_native.horror_thriller_scifi_webseries" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020: Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Green Frontier (Frontera Verde) is Netflix's first Colombian original, an 8-episode 2019 supernatural crime miniseries directed by Ciro Guerra, Laura Mora, and Jacques Toulemonde, filmed in Leticia, Amazonas, about a Bogota detective investigating four femicides.", "snippet": "Green Frontier (Frontera Verde) is Netflix's first Colombian original, an 8-episode 2019 supernatural crime miniseries directed by Ciro Guerra, Laura Mora, and Jacques Toulemonde, filmed in Leticia, Amazonas, about a Bogota detective investigating four femicides.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_web_native.horror_thriller_scifi_webseries", "markdown": "# Green Frontier\n\n**Green Frontier** (*Frontera Verde*) is a Colombian supernatural crime miniseries released by Netflix on August 16, 2019, in which a young Bogotá-based detective drawn into the Amazon jungle to investigate four femicides uncovers magic, Nazis, and her own true origins.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) It was the first original series Netflix produced in Colombia, announced in November 2017 and produced by the Bogotá-based company Dynamo.[2](https://www.sensacine.com/series/serie-24272/) • [3](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-ventures-into-the-amazon-jungle-with-its-first-all-colombian-original-series)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *Frontera Verde* (Spanish) |\n| Format | Limited series, 8 episodes of roughly 40 to 48 minutes, all released August 16, 2019[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) • [4](https://epguides.com/GreenFrontier/) |\n| Setting | The Amazon jungle at the Colombia–Brazil border, filmed in and around Leticia, Colombia[5](https://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/cine-y-tv/netflix-apuesta-por-el-amazonas-y-ciro-guerra-para-su-nueva-serie-article-875879/?outputType=amp) |\n| Directors | Ciro Guerra, Laura Mora Ortega, and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) |\n| Creators | Diego Ramírez-Schrempp, Mauricio Leiva-Cock, and Jenny Ceballos[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) |\n| Lead cast | Juana del Río (Helena Poveda), Ángela Cano (Ushe), Miguel Dionisio Ramos (Yua), Nelson Camayo (Reynaldo Bueno)[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153) |\n| Reception | 100% Tomatometer from 6 critics and 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; 7.2/10 on IMDb from about 3,200 users[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9641192/) |\n| Rating | TV-MA (Netflix US); 15 in the United Kingdom[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) • [8](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/green-frontier) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise\n\nThe murders of four missionary women bring Helena Poveda, a detective from Bogotá, to the deep jungle near the Colombian–Brazilian border.[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153) Meeting resistance from locals, she investigates on her own while haunted by Ushe, a murdered young woman, and works alongside Reynaldo Bueno, an indigenous local policeman.[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153) • [9](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/43202/frontera-verde)\n\nA parallel story runs decades earlier. Yua and Ushe, two natives whom everyone calls \"the eternals,\" are tasked with protecting the jungle and battle Joseph Schultz, a foreigner who believes the indigenous population is harboring an incredible secret.[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153) • [9](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/43202/frontera-verde) The scholar Julia R. Brown, a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Literatures at the [University of California, Santa Barbara](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-california-santa-barbara), describes the story as set on the border during the 1940s, 1980s, and 2010s, with Yua as leader of the fictional Arupani people and Ushe as his Mananuc protégée, trained as a new \"eternal,\" a being connected to the metaphysical heart of the Amazon; Schultz is a power-hungry Nazi scientist.[10](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2019/10/06/frontera-verde-green-frontier-2019-amazonia-from-social-media-to-netflix/) The eight episodes carry Spanish-language titles from \"La Manigua\" to \"La Oscuridad\" (The Deep Jungle through The Dark).[4](https://epguides.com/GreenFrontier/)\n\n## Production\n\nNetflix announced the series on November 22, 2017 as its first Colombian original, with executive production by the Oscar-nominated director Ciro Guerra (*Embrace of the Serpent*, *Birds of Passage*) and production slated to begin in summer 2018.[3](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-ventures-into-the-amazon-jungle-with-its-first-all-colombian-original-series) Dynamo, founded in Bogotá in 2006, wrote the story, which Netflix bought and commissioned.[11](https://babel.banrepcultural.org/digital/api/collection/p17054coll23/id/1208/download)\n\n**Filming took place in Leticia**, the Amazonian capital of Colombia's Amazonas department, rather than on a set recreating jungle vegetation; the producer Diego Ramírez-Schrempp said the spirit of the communities and the local mysticism had to be experienced in full.[5](https://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/cine-y-tv/netflix-apuesta-por-el-amazonas-y-ciro-guerra-para-su-nueva-serie-article-875879/?outputType=amp) Most filming took place in late 2018 and concluded on January 21, 2019, and the series was shot entirely in 4K.[12](https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/green-frontier-season-1-netflix-release-date-plot-cast-trailer/) Conditions were demanding: Leticia is reachable only by plane, much of the action was shot at least a 30-minute hike from any access road, and the crew worked through a three-month shoot in high humidity at average temperatures of 35 to 38 degrees Celsius.[13](https://www.antonbauer.com/en/news-stories/frontera-verde/)\n\nGuerra directed the first episodes and set the rhythm that his co-directors continued: Jacques Toulemonde, a screenwriter on *Birds of Passage*, and [Laura Mora](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-mora), director of *Killing Jesus*, who directed the second half.[5](https://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/cine-y-tv/netflix-apuesta-por-el-amazonas-y-ciro-guerra-para-su-nueva-serie-article-875879/?outputType=amp) Guerra described the show as a film noir set in the Amazon, shot across a triple-border zone of Colombia, Brazil, and Peru that is a border not only geographic but also spiritual and cultural.[14](https://www.com.elcolombiano.com/cultura/cine/ciro-guerra-habla-de-frontera-verde-serie-original-de-netflix-HK11397202)\n\n## Cast and indigenous participation\n\nThe series stars Juana del Río as Helena Poveda, Ángela Cano as Ushe, Miguel Dionisio Ramos as Yua, and Nelson Camayo as Reynaldo Bueno, with Bruno Clairefond as Joseph Schultz, Marcela Mar as Sister Raquel, Andrés Crespo as Efraín Márquez, and Antonio Bolívar as Wilson Nai.[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153) • [8](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/green-frontier) Ramos and Bolívar, indigenous actors who had appeared in Guerra's *Embrace of the Serpent*, joined the project through that connection.[5](https://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/cine-y-tv/netflix-apuesta-por-el-amazonas-y-ciro-guerra-para-su-nueva-serie-article-875879/?outputType=amp)\n\nLeticia is home to indigenous groups including the Witoto, Inga, Tucano, Ticuna, and Nukak, and many residents worked on the production as assistants and actors and shared local traditions, such as using local plants for makeup.[15](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/next-generation-of-storytellers-in-the-colombian-amazon) A critic writing in *Cinematismo* noted that the presence of different indigenous communities, shooting in natural settings, and the use of native languages such as Tikuna and Huitoto with indigenous actors added veracity to the story.[16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier/s01)\n\n## Themes and critical discussion\n\nThe series deliberately avoids the romanticized image of indigenous Amazonian people as simple sages in harmony with nature; the creators present a contemporary Amazon where indigenous people wear rubber boots and young people are connected to the digital network.[5](https://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/cine-y-tv/netflix-apuesta-por-el-amazonas-y-ciro-guerra-para-su-nueva-serie-article-875879/?outputType=amp) Brown's analysis in the academic blog Mediático credits the show with breaking ground by giving the Witoto language standing equal to Spanish and Portuguese, while also cautioning that the Nai, Arupani, and Mananuc peoples are fictional and that the series fictionalizes indigenous mythologies into a pastiche rather than transmitting the oral histories of Witoto-speaking communities.[10](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2019/10/06/frontera-verde-green-frontier-2019-amazonia-from-social-media-to-netflix/)\n\nThe release coincided with the August 2019 Amazon fires: three days after the series premiered, the #PrayforAmazonia campaign spread across social media, and Brown argues the movement gave credence to the show's central themes of social and environmental justice.[10](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2019/10/06/frontera-verde-green-frontier-2019-amazonia-from-social-media-to-netflix/) Critics received the series well: Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 100% Tomatometer from six reviews, with reviewers describing it as an unpredictable combination of art-house and mystery-thriller expectations that expands a basic murder plot to incorporate the region's history, culture, and superstitions.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier) • [16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier/s01)\n\n## Community program\n\nAfter production wrapped, Netflix partnered with the FICAMAZONÍA Foundation, a non-profit that promotes protection of the [Amazon rainforest](https://www.edgepedia.org/amazon-rainforest) through cinema, to run a five-week audiovisual narrative boot camp for Amazonian locals, the first of its kind.[15](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/next-generation-of-storytellers-in-the-colombian-amazon) Of 32 participants chosen, 60 percent were of indigenous origin and 35 percent were women, spanning four decades and seven languages; the workshops covered directing, photography, production, sound, and art, and culminated in two short films, the fiction *The Puzanga* and the documentary *The Tree of Life and Death*, which debuted on Netflix on October 2, 2020 in the extras section of the Green Frontier series page.[15](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/next-generation-of-storytellers-in-the-colombian-amazon) Participants received certification from the [National University of Colombia](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-university-of-colombia).[15](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/next-generation-of-storytellers-in-the-colombian-amazon)\n\n## Availability\n\nThe series streams on Netflix, including the ad-supported tier, in 4K, and is not available on Disney+, Prime Video, or Apple TV+.[17](https://www.moviefone.com/tv-shows/green-frontier/8B3M4sRiv5AbYJkPRyqQg7/where-to-watch/) • [18](https://stream-tracker.com/en/serie/green-frontier-2019) Netflix lists it as a limited series with Spanish (Latin America) original audio and subtitles in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese.[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Green Frontier, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier)\n2. [Frontera Verde, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/series/serie-24272/)\n3. [Netflix ventures into the Amazon jungle with its first all Colombian original series, About Netflix (November 27, 2017)](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-ventures-into-the-amazon-jungle-with-its-first-all-colombian-original-series)\n4. [Green Frontier, a Titles & Air Dates Guide, epguides](https://epguides.com/GreenFrontier/)\n5. [Netflix apuesta por el Amazonas y Ciro Guerra para su nueva serie, El Espectador (August 13, 2019)](https://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/cine-y-tv/netflix-apuesta-por-el-amazonas-y-ciro-guerra-para-su-nueva-serie-article-875879/?outputType=amp)\n6. [Green Frontier, Netflix official site](https://www.netflix.com/title/80205594?fromWatch=true&src=tudum&trkId=260364153)\n7. [Frontera Verde (2019), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9641192/)\n8. [Frontera Verde streaming, JustWatch UK](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/green-frontier)\n9. [Frontera verde, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/43202/frontera-verde)\n10. [Julia R. Brown, Frontera verde/Green Frontier (2019): Amazonia from Social Media to Netflix, Mediático (October 6, 2019)](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2019/10/06/frontera-verde-green-frontier-2019-amazonia-from-social-media-to-netflix/)\n11. [Chapter 3: Green Frontier, Banco de la República digital collection](https://babel.banrepcultural.org/digital/api/collection/p17054coll23/id/1208/download)\n12. [Green Frontier Season 1: Netflix Release Date, Plot, Cast & Trailer, What's on Netflix](https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/green-frontier-season-1-netflix-release-date-plot-cast-trailer/)\n13. [Adding Power To Netflix's Green Frontier, Anton/Bauer](https://www.antonbauer.com/en/news-stories/frontera-verde/)\n14. [Ciro Guerra habla de Frontera Verde, El Colombiano](https://www.com.elcolombiano.com/cultura/cine/ciro-guerra-habla-de-frontera-verde-serie-original-de-netflix-HK11397202)\n15. [Promoting the next generation of storytellers in the Colombian Amazon, About Netflix (October 8, 2020)](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/next-generation-of-storytellers-in-the-colombian-amazon)\n16. [Green Frontier: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/green_frontier/s01)\n17. [Green Frontier Where to Watch, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/tv-shows/green-frontier/8B3M4sRiv5AbYJkPRyqQg7/where-to-watch/)\n18. [Green Frontier streaming availability, Stream Tracker](https://stream-tracker.com/en/serie/green-frontier-2019)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Genre web series: horror, thriller, science fiction, and mystery*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Green Frontier\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Green Frontier](https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier](https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Green Frontier\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/green-frontier. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Green Frontier is Netflix's first Colombian original, an 8-episode 2019 supernatural crime miniseries directed by Ciro Guerra, Laura Mora, and Jacques Toulemonde, filmed in Leticia, Amazonas, about a Bogota detective investigating four femicides." }