“Blanquita” — Chile’s 2022 Official Oscar entry–Opens in Select Theatres on Friday, Dec. 9, 2022

WINNER – Best Screenplay Venice Film Festival 2022

Blanquita, Chile’s Official Oscar entry for 2022 for International Best Film Category, had its world premiere in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival this year, winning the Best Screenplay prize for Director Fernando Guzzoni.  

Young actress Laura López debuts as an 18-year-old resident of a foster home, who is a key witness in a trial against powerful politicians and businessmen implicated in a child sex scandal. As questions are asked, her role in the scandal becomes unclear. Award-winning veteran actor Alejandro Goic co-stars as a priest who runs the home where the young woman lives. Other cast members include Amparo Noguera, Marcelo Alonso and Daniela Ramirez.

The feature is inspired by the real-life early 2000s Spiniak Case involving a child prostitution ring which provided services to a number of high-placed politicians and businessmen in Chile.  The case divided public opinion in Chile as it went through the courts, with doubts being cast on the testimony of a key witness who was caught up in the ring as a minor and accused two senators of abusing her. Guzzoni spent a year investigating the case in-depth before writing his screenplay.

Blanquita is Guzzoni’s fourth feature after La Colorina, Carne de Perro (Dog Flesh) and Jesús. The film’s Director of Photography is Benjamín Echazarreta, who lensed Gloria, A Fantastic Woman before Blanguita. Guzzoni said, “The idea was that the film’s ‘look’ should have overtones of a thriller, feel “wintery” and have a very defined, yet not clinical look. We decided to work with two different types of lenses this time, some dating back to the 1950s and some of them modern, combining both aesthetics as a result. Building up a certain atmosphere that would hopefully feel claustrophobic and nightmarish to the viewer.”

On the controversy surrounding the film – especially with all of the talk recently about “always believing the victims” Guzzoni is ready for any criticism that may come his way… “I think that the film is precisely about the victims. It’s defending the victims. It talks about the “black hole” of impunity and how the broken judiciary system leaves abused children behind. Blanquita’s character is a direct response to the system’s failures. Besides, she is a girl who was abused in the past and nobody believed her, so I don’t think of this story as provocative or irresponsible. But yes, I’m prepared for anything. I understand this binary logic that seems to drive today’s world and that the “woke” culture tends to ignore all the grey areas. But I don’t care, because, as Pasolini once said, I’m not interested in appeasing the morality police or in progressive punitivism. Which is, in my view, nothing more than just another form of fascism.” 

Blanquita (2022)

Drama | 98 Minutes