Rey de la Patagonia

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Note of intent

Antoine is a utopist who would like the Mapuche to set up for their freedom. But he is also a European persuaded he is bringing on civilization to wild men. And the man who is dreaming to become is a king. Horacio is a cynical man who would like to wipe out the Indians. But he is as well the romantic man risking his own life for the woman he loves. And this dual nature is the seed of his transformation. Both these points of view still exist. The European man having the good wild man at the same time idealized and infantilized. The creole man discriminating the people who remind him of his primitive side. This film is about present time stakes, a social violence I had a close sight of, in the rural slums of Patagonia, but as well the endless utopia of the independence of the Mapuche people.

Synopsis

Film based on a real story.  1860.

Horacio is a killer of Indians working for landowners. In a seaside pub, south of Chile, he meets Antoine, an eccentric Frenchman in search of a guide to explore Patagonia. Antoine wants to achieve the union of Mapuche tribes and create the kingdom of Patagonia. He pretends to be supported by the French government and to have a steady link with a big chief. But as a matter of fact, he is completely alone. Horacio accepts to go along with him in that utterly absurd adventure. But his actual aim is to take back his wife held back by the Indians. And to avenge her too. Nothing happened as they imagined. The camp they wanted to get to have been devastated by the Chilean army. The Mapuche Horacio wanted to kill and Antonio to be allied captured them into being slaves, working for the chief. An unexpected outburst of passions will be needed to invert parts once more, and the ephemeral miracle of the kingdom of Patagonia will happen.

Visual concept

Rather than a historical film, an immersion into more and more archaic territories where relations of humans between themselves and with nature are brought back to the main thing. I would like to find a Dzout of the worlddz feeling, to show that a space tour is also a time tour. We start from a more or less familiar and civilized setting of a pub to go down by degrees to the wild South, where we feel as if the origins of humanity were being relived. The characters are being transformed by this tour. They will find a communion with nature. They will discover their animal side and paradoxically, this way, their deep humanity.