El Cordero
Description
Juan Francisco Olea’s stunning debut feature is a darkly funny, nail-biting drama with a wickedly placid surface—manifest in the superbly understated purity of lead Daniel Muñoz’s gentle, Bible-reading serial criminal. Domingo (Muñoz) is a devout Catholic and a devoted family man seemingly content to glide through life as a weekend missionary and dutiful employee of a small family business. There are rumblings of disquiet at home: a teenage son whose unspoken sexuality has him increasingly alienated at school, and a wife whose desire for another child Domingo tacitly resists. Nevertheless, in Domingo’s regular confessions with the chummy local priest, nothing much emerges that might be called sin. Things change when a fatal accident leaves him, disturbingly, without a sense of remorse. A careless remark from the priest sets him on a path to summon up guilt at any cost—a path marked by two unexpected and unwelcome allies with strong antisocial streaks of their own, and consequences that are violent, bloody and strange. Keenly observed and beautifully acted by an exceptional cast, the film’s shrewd study of alienation, set in 1990s Chile, quietly resounds with the repressed trauma of a conservative society leaving the shadow of a long military dictatorship. —Robert Avila
Born in Santiago, Chile in 1984, Juan Francisco Olea has directed experimental videos and short films, including The Bluff (2009). El Cordero (2013) marks his feature film debut. In a statement about it he states, “El Cordero talks about the human need to belong to a particular group, to ‘blend in,’ to be part of something and the fear of being marginalized, exposed. The main character falls into a deep crisis when he realizes there is something not normal about him and he refuses to accept it.”
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/122129307?autoplay=1Film Details
Language Spanish
Year 2014
Runtime 90
Country Chile
Director Juan Francisco Olea
Producer Cristóbal Zapata
Writer Nicolás Wellmann
Editor Danielle Fillios
Cinematographer Leonardo Díaz
Cast Daniel Muñoz, Trinidad González, Roberto Farías