Mexican producer Francisco González Compean and director Chava Cartas have launched Durango Films, an action-drama company formed after the success of their Netflix thriller “Counterattack”. The move matters because Netflix is backing further Mexican action projects and plans to expand the “Counterattack” universe, reflecting increased confidence in locally made, internationally popular genre films.

Durango Films’ first major release, “Facing El Chapo” (“La captura”), will debut globally on Netflix on 21 August and dramatises Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s third and final capture. Starring Alfonso Herrera and Noé Hernández, the film follows two federal police officers whose routine stop brings them into contact with Guzmán; its makers say it focuses on Mexican heroes rather than glorifying crime. “Counterattack” spent 12 weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10 for non-English-language films and recorded 66.9 million views, placing it among the platform’s eight most popular non-English-language films.