Japan’s U-Next adds Dutch dramas

Japanese SVoD service U-Next has picked up two European series, including a crime drama set in Amsterdam’s underworld, from distributor Dutch Features.

Jeffrey Shimamoto

Mocro Maffia was released exclusively in the Netherlands on RTL-owned VoD platform Videoland last year. Its ensemble cast is led by Moroccan-Dutch actors Achmed Akkabi and Walid Benmbarek and Dutchman Daan Schuurmans.

Based on the book of the same name by journalists Wouter Laumans and Marijn Schrijver, it is inspired by the recent gang war between rivalling organised crime factions operating in the Amsterdam underworld.

As well as the Japanese deal, the series is set to be added to German SVoD platform Maxdome in Germany, Switzerland and Austria later this year.

U-Next has also taken Dutch Features’ drama miniseries The Swell, which explores what happens when the national flood defences of the Netherlands and Belgium start to collapse.

With five million people in those countries living on land below sea level, the show explores how they would cope with rebuilding not just their individual lives, but their entire nations too.

It has previously been sold to AMC’s Sundance Now channel in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Spain, France, Belgium and Denmark.

Jeffrey Shimamoto, head of international business development for U-Next, said: “At U-Next, we constantly strive to bring our subscribers the best content from around the world. Dutch Features has become a powerful partner for us in the Netherlands, bringing content to the table that has quintessential Dutch flavour consisting of dark themes mixed with biting social commentary.”