The film, which is being presented at Venice's Gap-Financing Market, deals with Chile's little-known enslaver past Four years after “Blanquita” won the Silver Lion for best screenplay, Chilean director Fernando Guzzoni returns to Venice. The filmmaker is set to present his latest project, “Land of the Savages,” at the Venice Gap-Financing Market, eyeing a return to the festival’s prestigious red carpet soon. The former is a powerful slave-owning businessman haunted by sinister nightmares of a dark past; the latter, a controversial abolitionist.
Both men are trapped in a spiral of corruption, betrayal and death as Guzzoni’s drama broaches Chile’s little-known history of enslavement. This made me wonder whether there was a history of Blackness in Chile because before this immigration wave, there were not a lot of Black people in Chile — at least not like in neighboring countries like Brazil and Colombia.” Guzzoni says that he went on a deep research period, where he learned about his own country’s past of enslavement and the horrors committed against Black people on Chilean land. This seemed ludicrous to me, so I continued to investigate, and I came upon a very specific, very precise history of trafficking and exploitation of Black and Afro-Caribbean populations in Chile.” “This was key to the formation of the Chilean elites, which triggered the idea for the film: this investigation of how a supposedly white European identity is built and what has to be erased for that to stand as the truth,” he emphasizes.
Casting Ramírez felt a natural choice for the director. The two have known each other previously, and when the Venezuelan actor heard more about the story behind “Land of the Savages,” he was “very intrigued by it.” “Édgar shares this political interest and this social sensibility regarding the history of our continent and culture,” says Guzzoni. I am very interested in how both of them represent physical opposites, a certain sophistication in Nahuel’s character, juxtaposed to Edgar’s raw masculinity.” The director believes “Land of the Savages” is an “encapsulation of how power has been constructed in Latin America.” “It doesn’t matter if the elite is progressive or conservative, reactionary or liberal; at the end of the day, they are a homogeneous group bound by a desire to completely exclude minorities from any sliver of power in order to sustain their social rankings.” Chief executive officer at Foton Pictures Carlos E.
Cuscó says they are focused on finishing the financing process and finding a European co-producer. There was a very small window we got to enjoy back in 2017 when the streaming war sort of heated up, but now everybody has pulled back. Art has gotten less important to them and harder to make.
We’ve been working on this project since 2022; it’s been a long journey, but we’ve finally been able to gain traction.” “We feel the industry is ramping back up. Europe has recovered nicely in many aspects,” he continues on a more positive note. We are trying to give Fernando all the resources he needs to fulfill his vision, because we very much believe in what he’s doing.” Guzzoni also highlights how the industry is more open and actively leaning toward South American films dealing with the continent’s troubled political past.
It is also interesting to look at how, even though many things have improved, there are still some of the same fractures plaguing us today. Édgar’s character, for example, exists in direct dialogue with the far-right movements we are seeing across the world right now, and Nahuel’s stands for the hypocritical progressists.” The director wraps up by saying this is a film with “great audience potential.” “We can see ourselves being back in Venice, but we also don’t want it to be solely a festival film; we want it to exist in both auteur and popular spaces. We don’t want to be overly didactic; we want the story to connect to audiences.” “Land of the Savages” is produced by Oso Films in co-production with Foton Pictures.
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