Chile in focus at the 36th Goteborg Film Festival

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Chile in focus at the 36th Goteborg Film Festival

Today we're revealing the festival's focus and announcing the first four films from the programme for 2013! For its 36th year, Göteborg International Film Festival has decided to spotlight Chilean film. 40 years after Pinochet's military coup d'état, Chile's film industry is once again blooming with a wave of young Chilean filmmakers finding success abroad.

During the military dictatorship, many people were persecuted and killed as a result of their political opinions. The oppositional forces were forced to flee, film schools were shut down, films disappeared and the possibility of making film became limited. Now a new generation of Chilean filmmakers is emerging. They are making films about the dictatorship's dark legacy, but also about entirely different subjects. Chilean film has been acclaimed at festivals in later years. To name a few: Pablo Larraín's trilogy Tony Manero, Post Mortem and No (in Venice and Cannes), Dominga Sotomayor's Thursday Till Sunday (praised in Rotterdam) and Sebastián Silva's The Maid (prized at Sundance and nominated for a Golden Globe).

In relation to its total population, Sweden is the country with the largest amount of people with Chilean background. Argentina and the USA are the only countries with more Chilean immigrants in absolute numbers. There are many reasons to zoom in on Chile during the upcoming 2013 festival.

- The festival audience will be able to see the whole scope of Chilean film production. They'll find both the veteran Raúl Ruiz's last film and works of a new generation of filmmakers. It'll be particularly interesting to hear our Chilean guests talk about the country's conditions for making film and what lies behind the creative bloom, says Marit Kapla, artistic director of Göteborg International Film Festival.

A selection of films that are ready for the Chilean section:

La noche de enfrente (Night Across the Street)

Directed by Raúl Ruiz

Night Across the Street was director Raúl Ruiz's last film and was completed first after his death. Ruiz is Chile's biggest director over time and one of those who were forced to flee after the military takeover. He settled in Paris, directed over 100 films during his lifetime and worked with actors such as Catherine Deneuve, John Malkovich and Emmanuelle Béart. Night Across the Street is characterized by Ruiz's distinct image narratology. With its beautiful and absurd scenes (among other things Beethoven and Long John Silver pop up), the film is a fascinating reconciliation with aging and death. Ruiz died in 2011, before the film premiered.

De jueves a domingo (Thursday till Sunday)

Directed by Dominga Sotomayor

Thursday Till Sunday is director Dominga Sotomayor's strong debut film, which won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam International Film Festival earlier this year. A family with two children leaves for a car trip through Chile. It is a trip that will be the family's last together. Outside the car window sprawls a vast steppe landscape. Inside the cabin, the children monitor their parents' conversation from the backseat. A poetic and melancholic , inward portrayal of a disintegrating family.

Zoológico (Zoo)

Directed by Rodrigo Marin

The film follows three youths in an upper-middle class suburb of Santiago, Chile. Their life is characterized by that typical Western tediousness that can only be experienced in an affluent society. They are drawn to different dreams: Camilo, a rejected young adult, tries to adjust to his new home after moving from Canada while at the same time he dreams about hockey. The young girl Belen surfs various pornographic websites with teenage webcam girls and dreams about becoming a TV announcer. The skater Aníbal thinks about ditching school to pursue skateboarding while at the same time his anxiety and frustration lead to violence.

Carne de perro (Dog Flesh)

Directed by Fernando Guzzoni

Dog Flesh recently had its world premier at the San Sebastian Film Festival where it won the largest prize in the debut competition. A psychological drama about the former soldier Alejandro who is overcome by an existential crisis after a military pal commits suicide. His past haunts him as he progressively drifts further from reality.