Set around 1910 in the Chaco region, the film depicts the plight of quebracho woodcutters, cruelly exploited by English businessmen with the support of the authorities, local police, and a paramilitary force established by the employers themselves.
Direction
Wullicher's patient observation lets horror accumulate without exploitation.
Cinematography
The Chaco landscape shot as both prison and cathedral.
Director
Ricardo Wullicher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Banned in Argentina until 1983, this was part of a wave of militant cinema funded by Peronist cultural programs—then suppressed by the dictatorship.
The English bosses are deliberately played as hollow, almost comedic figures; Wullicher wanted audiences to recognize that banal evil wears a golf club membership.
AR
