Héctor has one goal: buy his 10-year-old daughter Alma a pair of running shoes so she can compete in school races. He works hard despite his neurological disability, and every small sacrifice feels like a victory. But when a military official’s daughter dies in a terrible accident, Héctor becomes the target—wrongly accused, forced to sign a confession, and sent to a secret prison where he’s sentenced to death.
A Father’s Miracle (La Celda de los Milagros) is a prison drama from 2025 directed by Ana Lorena Pérez Ríos and written by Patricio Saiz. This Mexico-Colombia co-production adapts the 2013 South Korean hit Miracle in Cell No. 7, which has spawned remakes in Turkey, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India. Starring Omar Chaparro and newcomer Mariana Calderón, the film opened in Mexican theaters on December 25, 2025, earning $949,499 at the box office before landing on Netflix on February 13, 2026. Now in Top 10 on Netflix US. But can a man with a child’s innocence survive in a prison system designed to break him? And what happens to a little girl suddenly left to fend for herself? The full story below: cast, plot, what critics say. (Trailer at the bottom)
A Father’s Miracle : All the information
- Title: A Father’s Miracle
- Original title: La Celda de los Milagros (Miracle in Cell No. 7)
- Format: Movie
- Runtime: 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes)
- Genre: Drama, Prison Drama
- Country of production: Mexico, Colombia
- Original language: Spanish
- Director: Ana Lorena Pérez Ríos
- Writer: Patricio Saiz
- Main cast: Omar Chaparro, Mariana Calderón, Natalia Reyes, Sofía Álvarez
- Production: Secuoya Studios, The 42 Film
- Release date: December 25, 2025 (theatrical release in Mexico)
- Available on Netflix since: February 13, 2026
- Age rating: TV-MA
What A Father’s Miracle is about
Héctor’s life revolves around Alma—his daughter, his world. He dreams small: a pair of running shoes so she can race at school. But when the daughter of a high-ranking military official dies in an accident, Héctor finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. His disability makes him an easy target. He’s coerced into signing a confession, sentenced to a secret prison, and faces a death sentence ordered by the victim’s father.
Inside, the system is designed to crush him. But Héctor’s childlike kindness begins to change the inmates around him—hardened criminals who see something pure they’ve forgotten. They form an unlikely bond, devising plans to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, outside the prison walls, Alma must navigate a suddenly hostile world alone, clinging to the hope that she’ll see her father again.
Read also ► Here's the Top 10 (updated) most-watched movies on Netflix TODAY
A Father’s Miracle – Cast and characters
Omar Chaparro plays Héctor, the wrongly imprisoned father at the film’s center. Known primarily for comedy roles in No Manches Frida, How to Be a Latin Lover, and voice work in Kung Fu Panda and The Incredibles, Chaparro takes on his most dramatic role yet. Héctor is a man whose disability doesn’t define him but makes him vulnerable in a corrupt system. He’s the father who counts coins to buy shoes, who faces death threats in prison but won’t break because Alma is waiting. Chaparro studied young children’s behavior for months to create a performance that avoids stereotypes while honoring the character’s authenticity.
Mariana Calderón makes her acting debut as Alma, Héctor’s 10-year-old daughter. She’s the child who sneaks into prison to see her father, who must suddenly learn to survive without the only parent she’s ever known. Calderón carries the film’s emotional weight alongside Chaparro—a remarkable feat for a first-time actor.
Natalia Reyes (Terminator: Dark Fate, Birds of Passage) plays Maestra Ingrid, Alma’s teacher who becomes a crucial figure when the girl needs support outside prison walls.
Sofía Álvarez appears as Yadira, while Jorge A. Jiménez plays Capitán Avilés, the military official whose grief turns into a quest for vengeance. Gustavo Sánchez Parra (Amores Perros), Marco Treviño, and Biassini Segura round out the ensemble as inmates who become Héctor’s unlikely allies.
Is it based on a true story?
A Father’s Miracle (La Celda de los Milagros) is a remake of the 2013 South Korean film Miracle in Cell No. 7 (7beonbang-ui Seonmul), directed by Lee Hwan-kyung. The original Korean film was a massive success, spawning multiple international adaptations. The Turkish version premiered in 2019 and became one of Turkey’s highest-grossing films. The Filipino remake also dropped in 2019, followed by versions from Indonesia and India. Each adaptation has localized the story while maintaining the core emotional beats: a wrongly accused father with a disability, a daughter’s unwavering love, and inmates who rediscover their humanity. The story is fictional, though it taps into universal fears about wrongful conviction and the justice system failing the most vulnerable.
What critics say
A Father’s Miracle holds a 6.8/10 rating on IMDb based on early viewer responses. The film has been praised for replicating the emotional structure of the Korean original while adapting it to a Latin American context.
According to FilmAffinity reviews, the film “replicates the structure of the original film and opts for a classic approach, oriented to emphasize emotional bonds and the logic of sacrifice.” Critics note that Chaparro’s performance is the film’s strongest element—a departure from his usual comedic roles that demonstrates genuine range. The father-daughter dynamic between Chaparro and Calderón has been highlighted as the film’s emotional core.
Since its Netflix debut on February 13, the film has quickly positioned itself in the Top 10 most-watched productions on the platform, primarily in Latin America, though it’s finding audiences in the US market as well.
Why watch it
If you cried through The Pursuit of Happyness, here’s that same father-child bond tested in a prison cell: no speeches about dreams, just a man fighting to stay alive long enough to hug his daughter one more time.
Loved The Shawshank Redemption? Same blueprint: wrongful imprisonment, inmates discovering humanity, and hope surviving in the darkest places. But where Shawshank took decades, this story compresses everything into a pressure cooker of emotion.
For those who watched the original Korean film or any of its remakes, this Mexican-Colombian version offers a familiar story through a different cultural lens—family devotion, systemic injustice, and the question of whether innocence can survive in a guilty world.
When it drops on Netflix
Available on Netflix starting February 13, 2026.
► WATCH A FATHER'S MIRACLE ON NETFLIX
Trailer
Official trailer below.
