Global independent content distributor GoQuest Media announced that it has concluded a deal with Australian national pubcaster SBS.

The deal sees SBS acquire the exclusive AVOD rights for the award-winning and gripping crime thriller RATS (6 x 55′) – a bold, hard-hitting drama about the Czech drug trade produced by Heaven’s Gate.

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 multi-generational 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 has won the Czech Lions (2021) and Czech Film Critics’ Awards (2021) for Best TV Series, has been nominated for the Golden Eye for Best International TV Series at the International Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) and Best TV Series at Serial Killer.

SBS On Demand Channel Manager, Haidee Ireland, said “Rats is a thrilling and stylish series, and we are excited to have it join our collection of world-class dramas from all over the world, handpicked and curated for local audiences on SBS On Demand”.

Commenting on the deal, Jimmy George, Vice President of Sales & Acquisitions at GoQuest Media added, “We are delighted to have SBS introducing Rats to Australian audiences.  The series has a one-of-a-kind approach to the traditional worldview of drugs both in terms of its protagonist’s story as well as the physical world it is set in. This is a new and extremely interesting universe that viewers will be introduced to, and we can promise they won’t be disappointed.”