Alien Island (Isla Alien)
Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos
Entirely subconsciously, we attribute a certain credibility and informative authority to analogue technology and outdated media. But it is precisely this trust that can be easily abused in order to attach a hint of truth to even the most absurd stories. It is not the conspiracy story itself that plays the decisive role, but rather who wants to use it to manipulate, keep quiet or cover up certain things.
Strange things are certainly happening on the mysterious “Friendship Island” off the coast of dictatorial Chile. Inexplicable lights shoot across the night sky and people disappear in the surrounding area. All these events triggered a real UFO craze among the population. When a small group of radio geeks make contact with the island's supposed alien inhabitants, they become embroiled in a conspiracy that is simultaneously more bizarre and yet more real than they imagined.
20 April 2024
19:30 h, Mal Seh'n Kino
More information
| Direction | Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos |
| Country | Chile, Italy |
| Year | 2023 |
| Duration | 87 min |
| Language | Spanish with English subtitles |
| Production | Diego Breit Lira, Sarah Pennacchi |
| Cast | Ernesto De La Fuente, Daniel Morales, Cristina Muñoz, Octavio Ortiz |
| Camera | Matías Illanes |
| Script | Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos, Juan Eduardo Murillo |
| Editing | Juan Eduardo Murillo |
| Sound | Eric Guerrino Nardin, Massimiliano Borghesi |
Chicago International Film Festival
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About the director
Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos is a Chilean director. His first documentary Robar a Rodin dealt with a prominent art heist in Santiago and the subsequent public debate. The look of Robar a Rodin was inspired by the visual language of film noir, while his latest documentary, Isla Alien, draws on science fiction films from the 1960s.
Press reviews
„It’s the finicky retraining of the mind, experienced by the victim and the perpetrator alike that makes “Alien Island” a captivatingly layered investigation into a country’s unresolved trauma.“ (Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com)
„Like in a mystery film, the answers to the questions posed throughout the film are aptly kept until the very end, and they are stranger than they seem at first glance. Alien Island shows how elements of fiction can be used to tell a non-fictionalized story, and how it makes sense to do so when reality is on such unstable ground.“ (Luis Felipe Raguá Miranda, icsfilm)
The director about the film
"In this sense, the context for Isla Alien was also interesting because it was set in the middle of the dictatorship, where this kind of storytelling was encouraged.
It's common knowledge that the dictatorship constructed stories [...].
For us, it's a science fiction movie because the story is science fiction, it's entertaining, it's compelling, it's dynamic, but at the same time it's also an invitation to think about these beliefs. I would say that Alien Island is a movie about UFOs, but it goes much further, it questions our belief system, why we believe what we believe." Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos in an interview with Revista Matadero
GERMAN PREMIERE
International Feature Film Program
