Pablo Larraín's Netflix series 'Once' casts top crew for 2025 release
Chilean director Pablo Larraín is making an 11-part Netflix series called *Once* about the aftermath of Pinochet’s 1973 coup, featuring 11 interwoven stories set in 1973–74. Netflix plans a 2025 globa
Chilean director Pablo Larraín is making an 11-part Netflix film called *Once* about the fallout from General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup—and it just
Read Full Story at Variety →Why This Matters
Larraín’s *Once* arrives at a critical juncture, not just as a historical drama but as a narrative reckoning with trauma—one that challenges audiences to confront the lingering fractures of Cold War-era violence in Latin America. The series’ fragmented storytelling mirrors the disorientation of post-coup societies, forcing viewers to navigate moral ambiguity rather than consume clean historical narratives.
Background Context
The 1973 coup in Chile, orchestrated by Augusto Pinochet with U.S. backing, marked a turning point in Cold War geopolitics, normalizing state terror as a tool of governance. While Pinochet’s regime is often framed as a cautionary tale, its aftermath—disappearances, exile, and psychological scars—remains unevenly addressed in art and policy, particularly in how it shaped diasporas across Europe and the Americas.
What Happens Next
Netflix’s investment signals a potential shift in how streaming platforms engage with politically sensitive material, balancing global reach with artistic integrity. The 2025 release could collide with renewed scrutiny of U.S. involvement in the coup, as declassified documents and investigative journalism resurface, amplifying the series’ relevance. Will audiences outside Latin America engage with the material’s specificity, or will it be diluted into generic "dictatorship drama"?
Bigger Picture
Larraín’s project aligns with a broader trend of "transnational trauma narratives," where streaming platforms commission high-budget stories that transcend borders, but risk sanitizing their historical weight. It also reflects how authoritarianism’s cultural legacy is being revisited—from *Narcos* to *Argentina, 1985*—as a way to process unresolved grief, even as populist movements in the West revive old tactics of control.
