Based on an actual murder case that ignited a furious debate over the death penalty in Chile in 1960, this experimental social drama portrays the life and death of an illiterate peasant who, while drunk, murdered the woman with whom he had a relationship and her five children.

For me, is the most beautiful chilean film. Aldo Francia begins with a real history about a man, a father that have to burgle and is captured. He is convicted, but his family need to live. All this situation is in Valparaiso, and Francia shows this beautiful city with this sad situation: boys that need to survive. Hard like the reality but full of love to life. A. Francia shows how a bad justice punish not only the guilty but his children.
If one movie captures the soul of a city, this is the one. Dealing with the social problems, telling the story of three brothers, sometimes tender, sometimes raw, Aldo Francia made a masterpiece showing us a Chilean neorealism movie. The dark and natural cinematography goes very well with this feature. The bitter story of a family with a father in jail, a mother and three brothers fighting against poverty and an unfair society, who rejects them even between another rejected people. Francia makes this bitter story with no weeping scenes or political speeches: is very real, very beautiful and very shocking.
This is a movie you must see. If you think Italian neo-realism is great this movie will be your favourite, it has all the Italian codes but a much harder reality. A great way to discover Latin America in the sixties. A great way to discover the real Valparaiso. It's not beautiful but it is real just like life.

Venice Film Festival
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1986 Won FIPRESCI Prize - Honorable Mention

2015 film by Patricio Guzmán

2012 film directed by Pablo Larraín

1975 film by Helvio Soto

In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.

2004 film by Andrés Wood