Cinema
The Jackal of Nahueltoro
El chacal de Nahueltoro
Miguel Littín · 1969
Synopsis
The film retraces the true story of Jorge del Carmen Valenzuela, a poor, illiterate day labourer whom exploitation and ill-treatment suffered since childhood have driven to drink. A poor woman, Rosa Rivas, mother of five children, helps him; in August 1960, drunk, he kills her along with her children, and the press nicknames him the Jackal. According to the Melbourne festival, in prison he learns to read and write, takes up a trade and discovers moral and religious values, a transformation that the film contrasts with the poverty of the countryside and the slowness of justice.
Context
Shot on location, the film draws on the official texts of the court file and on the press interviews of the condemned man, according to El Mostrador. Presented at the Viña del Mar festival in 1969 with Valparaíso mi amor and Tres tristes tigres, it belongs to the new Chilean cinema and received the prize of the International Catholic Organisation for Cinema in Berlin in 1970. Memoria Chilena stresses its impact in cinemas as well as in social and political debate; more than three hundred specialists consulted judged it the best film in the country's history. Nelson Villagra plays the lead role.
Who it is for
A drama in a documentary tone, of about ninety-five minutes, harsh and unsparing; shown in France and in English-speaking countries.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a prize at Berlin in 1970, and placed at the top of the ranking of Chilean films drawn up by CineChile in 2016.
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