Mano de Hierro / Iron Reign (Netflix series, 2024)
Mano de Hierro (aka Iron Reign) is a scintillating Spanish-language crime thriller series, set in the harbor of Barcelona.
Full disclosure: I once spent the night in a hotel in this area, not because I was involved in any criminal activities (on my life, your honor!) but because I was sent to Barcelona to interview Hillary Swank for her starring role in the long forgotten Hollywood movie The Reaping. The interview went fine, by the way.
It was a fun trip, and the marina looked lovely and innocent at night, but who knows what people get up to in other parts of this sea harbor?
According to this brand new series, Barcelona's sea port receives almost 6.000 containers per day. Goods from all over the world which, in just a year, can hide over 30.000 kilos of up cocaine, making the port city one of Europe's most important entrances in the profitable business of drug trafficking.
Mano de Hierro centers around Joaquin Manchado (Eduard Fernández), who runs his drug empire, not so much with an iron fist, but as a one-armed bandit.
Josquin is the head of a crime family, which consists of his son-in-law, Nestor (Jaime Lorene), who is married to his daughter Rocio Manchado (Natalia de Molina). Other key figures are Joaquin’s Roman Manchado (Sergi Lopez), who drinks too much, and Joaquin’s son Ricardo Manchado (Enric Auquer), who is dealing with some personal issues. There is also a leading role for Chino Darin, who plays Victor Julve.
There are some wonderful actors in the cast. Chino Darin (son of Argentinian acting legend Ricardo Darin) was recently seen in crime series El Reino, Jaime Lorente was in Le Casa de Papel, Natalia de Molina was a European Shooting Star in 2015 and since then won a boat load of awards, while Sergi Lopez has been one of Europe’s best character actors for the last 40 years. And Fernandez himself, of course, is no slouch either. A couple of years ago he was one of the stars of the brilliant God’s Crooked Lines by one of my favorite Spanish filmmakers Oriol Paulo.
Mano de Hierro was created by another very talented filmmaker, Lluís Quílez, who was born and raised in Barcelona and who wrote and directed most of the eight episodes.
The gist of the story is as follows: Joaquin Manchado has the main terminal in the port of Barcelona in his rather large pocket. If someone wants to import an illegal load of anything (though mostly come) they need both his support and that of the criminal network around him.
The die is cast, however, when a new shipment, an unexpected accident and the disappearance of a massive amount of cocaine lead to a ruthless war. With the resulting murders and their revenges leaving both Joaquin’s business and his family in disarray.
As for other interested parties: there is competition that wants to take Joaquin’s place, and while the Guardia Civil may be corrupt, the Justice Department wants to take him down badly.
The first episode ends with Joaquin receiving an award for being entrepreneur of the year, while at the same time there is a massive shootout going on in the harbor. As a crime series, Iron Reign really is tough-as-nails.
It’s only a couple of months ago that the coastal city of Marseille in the south of France was shaken to its core in the hard boiled crime series Pax Massilia. Now it’s Barcelona’s turn and after seeing the first couple of episodes I think you should definitely tune in for Mano de Hierro.
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