Following the selection of White on White to represent Chile and compete at the next edition of the Oscars, we invited one of our great ambassadors of Chilean cinema, Pablo Larraín, to talk with the director of the film Théo Court and its leading actor, Alfredo Castro, in one of our CinemaChile Talks special edition, released exclusively by Variety magazine.
Court’s second feature, a portrait of the genocide of the indigenous Selknam people in Tierra del Fuego, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where he won the Silver Lion for Best Director of the Orizzonti section, among other awards. It has been distributed to more than 70 international festivals and now continues its extensive path representing Chile in the race for the Oscars for Best International Film.
Like Court, Larraín has generated 'Oscar buzz', this year with Spencer (distributed by Neon), a film that has been widely received by both audiences and critics, and where Kristen Stewart’s portrayal of Princess Diana is being praised as the peak of her acting career.
Larraín, founding partner along with his brother, Juan de Dios Larraín, from the production company Fabula (based in Chile, Mexico and Los Angeles) brought to Chile the first Oscar for Best International Film in 2018 with A Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastián Lelio.
One crucial element that Court and Larraín share with their films is the third guest to the conversation, actor Alfredo Castro, who plays a photographer in White on White and who has performed in six of Larraín’s nine features, including emblematic roles like Tony Manero (2008), NO (2012) and The Club (2015). Castro is undoubtedly one of the most important actors in Chile, with an international career that includes 71 films that have been awarded in Venice, Havana, the Platinum Awards, among others.
The encounter between Larraín, Court and Castro brought with it a magnetic conversation focused on the most political and controversial aspects of the film: the massacre of the Selk'nam ethnic group in Tierra del Fuego, one of the darkest chapters in the history of Chile, and the least publicly spoken.
The conversation revealed Larraín’s support for White on White’s candidacy to represent Chile in the Best International Film category of the Oscar Awards, calling it a "really interesting, strange and very violent film".
The conversation also delved into different details of Court’s second feature, about the creative process of the film, and from which came the idea of using the figure of a photographer to capture a key social and political moment in the history of Chile and Latin America.
The complete conversation is now available and translated and subtitled into English, so that English speakers from all over the world can learn more about these three great talents and the details of their careers and cinematic experience.
Enjoy this CinemaChile Talks Special Edition!
White on White premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion for Best Director of the Orizzonti section, the Fipresci Critics' Award and a special mention from the Human Rights Film Network Awards for its theme of the Selknam massacre in Tierra del Fuego.
After this it received more than 20 awards in a film festival tour of almost 70 international festivals including Rotterdam, Minsk, Havana, Cinélatino de Toulouse, Karlovy Vary, Thessaloniki, Shanghai, Goa, Sanfic, FICViña, Lima and Almeria, among others.
Court’s film has been acquired for distribution in North America by Outsider Pictures and will be available in theatres in Los Angeles and New York from December 10.
