Global independent content distributor GoQuest Media announced that it has partnered with Czech production company Heaven’s Gate to take the international distribution rights for the gripping crime thriller Rats (6 x 55′) – a bold, hard-hitting drama about the Czech drug trade.

Based on true stories and made in collaboration with the National Anti-Drug Centre of the Czech Republic (DEA), Rats was created and written by talented young Czech screenwriter Miro Šifra (Rédl) and directed by multi-award-winning Viktor Tauš (Vodnik, Clownwise, Dom) of Heaven’s Gate and Matěj Chlupáček (Terapie) of Barletta Productions in association with Czech TV and MD4. Rats aired in Spring 2020, during primetime on Ceska televize to unprecedented critical acclaim and multigenerational ratings success.

Rats is set in the evolving world of the Czech-Vietnamese meth syndicates which are led by an immigrant mafia, funded by cryptocurrency and monitored by the DEA, who have to change their traditional tactics in order to adapt to the new order. But change begets mistakes, which often cost lives and nobody wants to end up as a rat for the DEA, but David (Cyril Dobrý) didn’t have a choice. After cracking under the interrogation of Major Jan Blažek (Václav Neužil), spilling the secrets of the syndicate, and betraying his best friend, becoming an informant might be his best chance to survive.

Only now he’s being targeted by the police and the mafia, with only the ambitious police analyst Petra Vávrová (Lenka Krobotová) to back him up. In a world where nobody trusts him and he can trust nobody, David is learning to make up the rules as he goes along.

Boasting a stellar Czech cast including Cyril Dobrý (Das Boot, Ulice) Lenka Krobotová (Díra u Hanušovic), Václav Neužil (Bába z ledu), and new-comer Miloslav Pechácek, Rats will screen at numerous festivals this autumn including Serial Killer, Odessa, and the International Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) where it has been nominated for the Golden Eye for Best International TV Series.

Commenting on the distribution deal, Paula McHarg, Head of Europe & North America at GoQuest Media said, “From the first frame of Rats until its gripping conclusion we were nothing short of transfixed. Globally launching such an outstanding series from a region that’s currently bubbling over with potential is truly an honor and we have no doubt that the international marketplace will respond with as much enthusiasm as we have.”

Viktor Taus, CEO of Heaven’s Gate adds: “I believe that part of the reason for the global resonance is, paradoxically, the local specificity. Besides its thrilling content, a crime mini-series in 2020 also has to be an authentic report of the state of the world when the story takes place. RATS is like that. This is the world we live in. I’ve never met with such deep interest to understand the story, its heroes, and the meaning of the storytelling visuality as with Paula and her team at GoQuest Media. Through them, Rats has been awarded a distributor with the same passion as the team we told the story with.”