Is Netflix’s ‘High Water’ Based On A True Story?

Netflix has found great streaming numbers in dramatizing real-life stories. The biggest recent example of this would be Dahmer, which is already the streamer’s second-most-watched original series of all time, weeks after the Ryan Murphy show surfaced. Then there’s continuing fallout from Inventing Anna subject Anna Delvey/Sorokin, who has stayed in the headlines for several months, and Luckiest Girl Alive also portrays some inspired-by-real-life (and triggering) events as written by author Jessica Knoll. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that these projects star Evan Peters, Julia Garner, and Mila Kunis (respectively speaking), but they’re proof that real life can be more dramatic than any fictional story, and the eyeballs are there.

To that end, a sleeper series surfaced a few weeks ago with High Water, a Polish production about the 1997 Millennium Flood that buried parts of Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic and killed over 150 people as rapid flash flooding dwarfed cities and rural areas. The six-part series brings the catastrophe to life onscreen for the first time, and the show’s creator, Anna Kępińska, declared (via a Netflix press release) that the project intended to zero in on the battle between individuals and the collective. In the end, the dramatized story portrays what happens when everyday troubles are replaced by an impossible-to-predict event that pits humanity against an uncontrollable force. From Netflix’s summation of the plot:

In July 1997, scientists and local government officials face life-and-death decisions when a destructive flood wave threatens the city of Wrocław in Poland. The local authorities, led by the aspiring clerk Jakub Marczak bring in Jaśmina Tremer, a female hydrologist with a troubled past, to help save the city at any cost. At the same time, Andrzej Rębacz returns to his hometown, a village near Wrocław, unexpectedly leading the rebellious residents against the disaster.

Here’s the limited series’ very intense trailer that promises a harrowing ride.

High Water is currently streaming on Netflix.