'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' Arrives on Prime Video This April

Sweeping war epic The Narrow Road to the Deep North has finally bound a U.S. distributor, and its premiere date is sooner than anyone likely expected. Prime Video, whose Australian arm played a key role in the creation of the drama, has announced a surprise (and rather sudden) release of the series this April. (Technically, in just a few days' time.) It's also a surprise because back in February, just before it debuted at Berlinale, there were reports that HBO and Max were picking up the rights. Turned out they did... but only in Europe. With no American distributor and a global release on April 18, Amazon announced on April 13 that it had finally found one... Amazon's Prime Video.

The five-part Australian series is based on Richard Flanagan's 2014 Man Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. Though it is a fictional account of the war, it is at least partially inspired by real stories, including the experiences of Flanagan's own father and the famous Edward “Weary” Dunlop. The Narrow Road to the Deep North follows the life of Lieutenant-Colonel Dorrigo Evans through the early days of the war, a passionate love affair with his uncle's wife, and his experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war when he was forced to work on the construction of the Thailand-Burma Railway. Over 13,000 Australians were put to work on the so-called "death" railway, which claimed the lives of over 90,000 Asian civilians and 16,000 prisoners, including 2,800 Australians. (Its construction is considered a war crime by Japan.)

Saltburn star Jacob Elordi plays Evans, with Ciarán Hinds (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) taking over the role as an older Evans, who remains haunted by his experiences and uncomfortable with his image as a war hero.