ZeroZeroZero

ZeroZeroZero is an Italian crime drama television series created by Stefano Sollima, Leonardo Fasoli and Mauricio Katz for Sky Atlantic, Canal+ and Amazon Prime Video.

It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Roberto Saviano,[1][2] a study of the business around the drug cocaine, covering its movement across continents.

The series stars Andrea Riseborough, Dane DeHaan and Gabriel Byrne as the American Lynwood family, controlling an international shipping company which acts as cocaine broker between Mexican and Italian organized crime.

[3] The series derives its name from the whitest, finest-milled type of wheat flour (000), which is "the nickname among narcotraffickers for the purest cocaine on the market.

"[4] The world premiere of ZeroZeroZero was on 5 September 2019 at the 76th Venice International Film Festival, where the first two episodes were screened out of competition.

The series follows the troubled journey of a large shipment of cocaine from Monterrey, Mexico to Gioia Tauro, Italy.

The sellers are Mexican drug lords Enrique and Jacinto Leyra, who are aided in their criminal activities by Manuel Quinteras and his group of corrupt soldiers; the buyer is Don Minu La Piana, a boss of the 'Ndrangheta, whose position is challenged by his ambitious grandson Stefano and the Curtiga family; the brokers in charge of the shipment are the Lynwoods, an American family from New Orleans owning a prestigious shipping company.

Chris is able to get the ship to Dakar, Senegal with the help of the coast guard and tries to reason with Senegalese officials to allow his cargo to continue on to Italy.

A street urchin takes him to a local crime lord from who Chris buys an alternative in the form of a mysterious green liquid, along with some weed.

Later in the night, Emma looks on as the Jihadists purchase weapons, and Omar briefly explains the conflict between the French nationals and the Tuaregs to her.

Omar tells her that there has been a drone strike by the French nationals on the Jihadists who took Chris, which is what the previous commotion that Emma witnessed was regarding.

Omar is shot, but his associates continue to return fire; however, they are greatly outnumbered and the Jihadists are quickly closing in.

Back in Mexico, Manuel gains control over some local drug lords and recruits a few hundred teenage boys for his army.

His men take control of an abandoned factory and start a military-grade training camp for the new recruits, whom they call "vampires."

When he reminds them that it's payday, the Leyras brother tells him that securing their drug business is burning a hole in their pockets and that a new consignment of weapons is coming; therefore, they will have to wait for their payment.

Manuel asks the waiter to send over three bottles of their most expensive champagne to the Leyras brothers, indirectly humiliating them.

In a flashback that shows what was happening while Manuel was with Diego's wife, Indio receives a call for the delivery of the weapons.

However, the tension that was built up between the Leyras' men and Manuel's army spills over from insults, and a gunfight ensues, killing Indio.

Upon arriving at their destination, it is revealed that Bellantone and his men are working against Don Minu, and they beat Lucia and use her and her son as ransom to get Stefano to do their bidding.

It was released in its entirety on 6 March 2020 on Amazon Prime Video in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Spain.

The Critics Consensus states, "An addictive thriller whose greatest weakness is that it is at times too withholding, ZeroZeroZero will stick with you long after the credits roll.

Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com praised ZeroZeroZero as "the kind of thriller that makes such a deep impression because it can think big and small at the same time, uniting three gripping individual stories into one massive saga.

"[18] Mike Hale of The New York Times characterized the show as a "three shows in one: an Italian mafia saga with rocky Calabrian hillsides and generational omertà; a Mexican narco thriller with lavish cartel violence; and, more improbably, an indie-movie-style American family drama and character study.

The series toggles among the three stories, which are intimately connected but for the most part told separately, with occasional meetings that are invariably bad news for the characters involved."

[19] Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that ZeroZeroZero was "beautifully shot, but frustratingly limited on character," and adding that "genre familiarity may make ZeroZeroZero less fresh, but it remains quite watchable, if you can ignore its vaguely nihilistic streak, thanks to a good cast, confident direction and cinematography that's really quite stunning at times.

The cast with Stefano Sollima and Roberto Saviano at the prémiere during the 2019 Venice Film Festival