The ones who are already established in our 40 years of age, as I am, still remember the dark stories watching the news about the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the man who had the country of Chile under his regime from 1973 to 1990. He reached power after a military coup that ended with the death of then-president Salvador Allende by multiple gunshots. During the years of the dictatorship, the regime was called to be a political genocide and accused of committing a violation of Human Rights. Pinochet was arrested in London on “charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder” in October 1998. He died in December 2006 after the consequences of a heart attack.
Yep, pretty dark times for the South American country and for the entire human history.
A few decades are past and a bunch of filmmakers have decided to frivolize a little with the persona of the dictatorship. And that is how we get the fantasy and comedy film El Conde (2023), which in English would be translated as The Count, that centers on Augusto Pinochet who is not dead but an aged vampire. After living 250 years in this world, he has decided to die once and for all, but the vultures around him won’t let him go without one last bite.
The architect of this film is the multi-awarded Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, who is an expert of translating historic events and historical figures into films having been behind Neruda (2016), about the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda assassinated by the military police, Jackie (2016) centering on the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Spencer (2021) about the mental health problems and end of the romance between Prince Charles and Diana Spencer aka Lady Di. He already dealt with the Pinochet dictatorship in the films Post Mortem (2010), following the last days of Salvador Allende‘s presidency, and No (2012) telling the story of an advertising executive and his campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile’s 1988 referendum. His ara also the thrillers The Club (2015) and the HBO TV series Fugitives (2011–2013). Pablo Larraín is also the co-writer of El Conde (2023) alongside his frequent collaborator Guillermo Calderón.
Alfredo Castro, Stella Gonet, Catalina Guerra, Paula Luchsinger, Diego Muñoz, Gloria Münchmeyer, Amparo Noguera, Marcial Tagle, Jaime Vadell, and Antonia Zegers form the main cast of the film.
El Conde (2023) is Rated R for strong violence and gore, some graphic nudity, rape, language, and sexual content. It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2023, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion for Best Film and won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay.
Produced by Fabula, Netflix has the distribution rights for the film and it has scheduled it for a digital release on September 15, 2023.
Watch the official trailer for El Conde (2023).
