Chilean star Alfredo Castro will play the lead role in the third film by Rojas Valencia, Patas de Perro (which translates to ‘dogs legs’)
The project is a co-production between Chile’s Horamágica and A Simple Vista Producciones and Brazil’s Centauro. Horamágica’s Úrsula Budnik also produced Sebastian Lelio’s early works The Sacred Family (2005) and Christmas (2009).
The film is an adaptation of the 1960 novel by prominent Chilean writer Carlos Droguett. Droguett was a member of the so-called 1938 literary generation in Chile and winner of the 1970 National Literature Prize. Droguett was exiled in Switzerland in 1976 during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, and died in 1996 in Berna.
Castro takes the central role of a lonely man who adopts a child born with the legs of a dog. His efforts to integrate the child into society unleash an escalation of violence by those who treat the man as a lunatic and the child as a monster.
Castro’s recent works include Felipe Gálvez’s historical chronicle The Settlers, Chile’s official Oscar submission which premiered at Cannes and now in San Sebastián’s Horizontes Latinos. He also starred in Pablo Larraín’s political fable El Conde, which premiered at Venice. Castro is repped by Mesala Films.
About Patas de Perro, the Latin American star said: “The dog-child is the resistance against prejudice, a monstrous body, a scandal, a battlefield for the execution of an incessant punishment.
“I put all my trust in Matías, a very talented creator with a personal and unique artistic proposal. It is an honour to be part of this project, and to be able to show in this film the magnificent writing of Carlos Droguett and the talent of Matías Rojas.”
Rojas Valencia’s first feature Root premiered in San Sebastián’s Horizontes Latinos section in 2013, and took the Best Chilean Film award at the Valdivia International Film Festival.
His second film, A Place Called Dignity, was produced by award-winning Chilean producer Giancarlo Nasi of Quijote Films; the company behind titles including Gálvez’s The Settlers, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir, and Theo Court’s White On White. All have been awarded on the festival circuit, with White On White winning Horizons and Fipresci awards at Venice in 2019.
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