7 - El Chacal de Nahueltoro (The Jackal of Nahueltoro, 1969), Directed by Miguel Littín

Summary

Cast

El chacal, played by Nelson Villagra

Rosa, played by Shenda Román

Priest, played by Héctor Noguera

Also Featuring

Marcelo Romo

Luis Alarcón

Pedro Villagra

Luis Melo

Ruben Sotoconil

Rafael Benavente

Roberto Navarrete

Crew

Production: Luis Cornejo, Luis Alarcón

Sound: Jorge Di Lauro

Music: Sergio Ortega

Editing: Pedro Chaskei

Photography: Héctor Ríos

Scriptwriter/Director: Miguel Littín

Produced by: Cine Chileno

Awards

Awarded prize for best documentary at the Latin American Film Festival held in Viña del Mar, Chile, in 1969

Plot

The documentary – filmed in black and white – opens with footage of the Jackal of Nahueltoro being led away by police; the mob around are out of control, hurling insults at him, calling him ‘asesino’ (murderer). We then cut to the Jackal who, in voice-over, recalls his life as a child. He drifted from various temporary jobs, and was abused by cruel employers. When he went back to his mother’s house he found he had a new half-brother and half-sister. For some unspecified crime, he was jailed, and, soon after release, met up with a woman called María González. He stayed with her for a while, until he came to blows with her nephew, and was thrown out. We see him stealing some clothes in order to trade them for a drink in a bar. He arrives at a small holding where a woman, Rosa, is cutting up some wood. She offers him a drink, and tells him she has a hard life bringing up her five children; her husband, Oscar, was stabbed to death. She asks him to stay. The family is evicted because the husband is no longer working for the landowner. We cut to a new sequence in which a dead man is being carried back to the village, and Rosa being offered condolences by the priest (a reconstruction of Oscar’s death and funeral). Camera cuts back to the eviction of the family, and cuts once more to the angry mobs once the Jackal is captured. Cuts back to the Jackal, now with Rosa and her family, who decide to camp in the open air. Rosa offers the Jackal some wine, which he drinks. We hear his voiceover describing his actions.