During a hazy summer, when seemingly everyone in Mexico is glued to the radio listening to soccer games, a boy named Miguel makes an unlikely friend in the forest. Trapped near an abandoned house, Felipe is alone and scared. The pair develops an unlikely friendship, and the secrets revealed between them will change Miguel forever: Felipe has been kidnapped, and all signs point to the adults in his life whom he thought he could trust. Created by Ernesto Contreras (The Secret of the River), the six-episode Mexican series I’m Not Afraid was directed by Contreras, Alba Gil, and Alejandro Zuno. It’s based on an Italian novel by Niccolò Ammaniti. 

Read on to find out more about the show below. 

Where can I stream I’m Not Afraid? 

Watch it on Netflix now. 

Who’s in the cast of I’m Not Afraid? 

• Aldo Emiliano Navarro (La eterna adolescente) as Miguel
• Yago Andreu (The Accident) as Felipe
• Luis Alberti (Counterattack) as Pino
• Fátima Molina (Who Killed Sara?) as Teresa
• Yoshira Escárrega (The Secret of the River) as Guadalupe
• Fernando Cuautle (The Secret of the River) as Rosalío
• Leidi Gutiérrez (Chicuarotes) as Margarita
• Humberto Busto (El Chapo) as Rodrigo
• Nora Huerta (Belascoarán, PI) as Rosa
• Cosmo Gonzalez as Felix
• Fernando Bonilla (The Dead Girls) as Don Emilio
• Mayra Hermosillo (Thursday’s Widows) as Fernanda
• Regina Arroyo (Acapulco) as María
• Mauro Guzmán (The Secret of the River) as Calavera
• Ian Andrade (The Rose of Guadalupe) as Salvador
• Damián Vergara (Who Killed Sara?) as Toño
• Rafaella Lopez as Bárbara
• Bruno Strauss as Chuy

What happens in I’m Not Afraid? 

It’s the late ’80s on the ruined coffee estate La Esmeralda in Coatepec, Veracruz, and life is falling apart after five years of blight that’s destroyed the harvests and driven workers into poverty. While the 1986 FIFA World Cup plays on every radio in its host country of Mexico, 10-year-old Miguel spends his days oblivious to the despair surrounding him, playing soccer among the dead coffee plants and idolizing famed Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona.

One day, while retrieving a soccer ball gone astray, Miguel discovers something hidden under a pile of vegetation — a door to a pit in the ground. Inside, he sees Felipe, a boy his own age, chained up and terrified. From then on, Miguel and Felipe build a secret friendship while sharing food, trading soccer match stories, and playing games. 

However, Miguel doesn’t understand the dark truth about his new friend: Felipe has been kidnapped. When Miguel discovers that his own parents could be involved, he decides that the children must make right what the adults are incapable of.

Is I’m Not Afraid based on a book? 

Yes, it was adapted from the Italian novel Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti, which won the 2001 Viareggio Prize, and was adapted into the 2003 film I’m Not Scared by Gabriele Salvatores. 

Where does I’m Not Afraid take place? 

The story is set in a coffee-growing town in the mountainous region of Veracruz, Mexico, during the 1986 FIFA World Cup, which Mexico hosted. 

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