In Chile, people look to the future. They work, dream of success, lose themselves in shopping and saccharine soaps. They prefer not to think of the dictatorship of Pinochet, who drowned the country in fear from 1973 to 1990.
Except, that is, for types like Alejandro. This shabby fifty-something worked in one of Pinochet’s torture prisons. Now he lives on the fringes of society, unable to reinvent himself. When one of his former colleagues commits suicide, this emotionally handicapped macho completely loses it. His wife and daughter leave him. His trusty yet noisy dog has to take the full force of his temper tantrums.
Fernando Guzzoni makes his debut filming Alejandro very close up. His paranoia is almost tangible, the mood bordering on claustrophobia. Despite being oppressive, Dog Flesh is not moralistic. With a star role for Alejandro Goic, who was himself tortured by Pinochet’s bullies.
