Chile’s Oscar entry, “Blanquita” by Fernando Guzoni, is based on the infamous “Spignac case,” an early 2000s exposure of a child prostitution/pedophilia ring that involved powerful Chilean politicians and businessmen. After a year-long investigation into the case, Guzzoni zeroed in on the most intriguing figure in the child sex scandal, Gemma Bueno, a key witness whose story began to unravel when prosecutors began to poke holes in her testimony.
In his thought-provoking film, Guzzoni based his titular character Blanquita on Bueno. Played by Laura Lopez, Blanquita is 18 years old and returns to a shelter for victims of sexual violence with a baby. She lives there in exchange for housework, and becomes the most credible witness in the case against the pedophile ring. After being persuaded by the priest (Alejandro Goeck) who runs the shelter, she claims to be a victim of sex trafficking and accuses a senator of being in the ring. She and the priest are pressured to back down but press on despite the threats. Inevitably, her lies pursue her and punish her. “You can rape, but I can’t lie,” she said with disgust. Protect it, I paid
As Guzzoni explains in his director’s statement: “Blanquita” is an inquiry about personal truth, deception, morality, and the interpretation of truth. Above all, it is about the double life of a girl or girl whose lack of opportunity and constant letdown by the very institutions that promised to protect her have pushed her to extremes.”
In a director-director conversation organized by CinemaChile, Sebastian Lelio, whose film “A Fantastic Woman” won the Oscar for Best International Film in Chile in 2017, spoke with Guzzoni to discuss the ideas and challenges behind the drama.
Sebastian Lelio: “It is a film full of provocative and complex ideas, which establishes an interesting relationship with the viewers due to the game of empathy. The film plays with these built-in loyalties, oscillating between different points of view to make us understand who is in this game of mirrors. For us viewers, this confusion becomes its charm at times And it’s almost the gist of what I feel like you were trying to understand in “Blanquita.” Does that resonate with you?
Fernando Joseni: Yes exactly. I think there is something interesting about challenging the viewer to place themselves morally and ethically with the character, and gradually understanding that a lie works as an immoral practice. The center of gravity of the film is the idea of the limits of representation within the story, the idea that a character builds a character, that this new identity that you build out of that dramatic tragedy somehow gives the character a hold. She is neither a victim nor a villain. The film is built on the idea that here is a young woman whose identity is somehow stolen by institutions or the street, because of this structural violence, the kind experienced by people who are not in the circles of power, who do not have easy access to justice.
Lilio: God and truth are dead, we are in the post-right era. And you chose a priest and a character who chooses life as a political weapon. It sounded very interesting to me, I don’t know when you filmed it, but at some point in the story everything explodes and shatters and one can see the mosaic moving. And the more screwed up in what the movie has to offer, the harder it is to tell what’s what. It seems to be a very modern problem, in the era when everyone has a role in collective writing. It is that moment when, paradoxically, we lose the most, as we do not know who or what to believe, or exactly what is real. It seems that what is behind the political dimension of the issue that we will talk about…. In its most philosophical and conceptual relations, the film engages in this problem very conscientiously, which seems to me a difficult concept to capture on camera. Very subtle examples appear to me, and it seems to me that the film succeeds, uses that elusive material and makes it its raw material. And I appreciate that very much, I think it’s one of the movie’s greatest strengths.
Guzoni: The idea of a Catholic priest persecuting a child exploitation network is paradoxical and, on the one hand, controversial, and is the root of the real issue and the film. Which is great because they establish this kind of immorality on the one hand, but with a noble purpose on the other. The characters are not black and white. This Catholic priest is a social activist, but there is a certain degree of narcissism in his aim.
Lilio: I thought her looking at the camera at the end was so beautiful, a classic gesture, but so essential to your movie that last photo is a photo of Blanquita looking at us. He asks us what do you think, where are you in this tangle? The spirit of the movie is there with that ending.
Sebastian Lelio and Fernando Jozoni
Courtesy of CinemaChile
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