Juan Pablo is a Chilean director, producer and screenwriter. The previously made thedocumentary film Ojos Rojos (2010), and the documentary series Adictos al Claxon, La Cultura del Sexo and Libre. He is co-founder of Villano Productions. His debut feature The Red Hangar, about “a dignified captain” whose ethics are “put the ultimate test during the bloodiest coup in the history of Latin America” opened the Perspectives section of the 76th Berlinale

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Lida Bach – Your first feature film focuses on the Chilean military dictatorship at a time when many Latin American countries are coming to terms with their authoritarian past. What inspired you to do this story at this moment?

Juan Pablo Sallato – We’ve been working a lot and have been pushing to bring this movie to the screen. It’s from a perspective that hasn’t been shown in Chilean cinema: the point-of-view of military members who don’t want to participate in the coup. It was one of our main goals to tell about this. We were lucky enough to have the programmers here at Berlinale select us. Everyone told us Berlinale is the best place to premiere a movie like this. But I also think a city like Berlin is a place that is used to confronting its own past and dealing with its present. That’s exactly what we were trying to do with this film.

LB – Why do you think no other film has tackled this subject since the military dictatorship ended in 1990?

JPS – There have been many books that deal with this subject, and there are documentaries, but not any fiction films. Maybe our society needed the time to think about its past. It’s essential to talk about the past and to revisit it, lest we make the same mistakes again. I think that all the things that are happening in the world right now push us to go back into the past and to grapple with these things. I still don’t really know why this story wasn’t told before. But we’re glad to finally put it on the screen now, and we hope that a lot of people can see it, and that they will bring up necessary questions about the past.

LB – There are stark parallels to the present, as the Chilean military coup had been facilitated by the United States. Currently. they are aggressively interfering in international politics. Are these similarities intentional?

JPS – Yes, and we have cause to be concerned. Human rights and constitutional rights of nations are stripped away by the United Station. They are acting with total impunity. It brings up awful memories and feels like they bring us back into the past. Why will human beings always repeat the same errors all over again? It’s important to bring these kinds of stories to the screen to remember. Even if it helps just one single person to think about these issues and to make different decisions than those in power.

LB – The plot focuses strongly on individual decisions as well as personal responsibility and integrity. Do you believe that in such a situation, one person can still make a difference?

JPS – Yes, that is the heart of the movie: the conflict between the military institution and this character’s own ethics. The military is like a religion. You have to follow orders. What I love about this story is that he nevertheless follows his own heart. It’s an awful story, but there’s still some humanity in it. Which brings us again to the present and to the audience, which can still believe in human beings. Even if you are in the military, you can still act humanely. It’s about the moral gray areas. Therefore, the black-and-white.

LB – So did you decide on the black-and-white look to emphasize the duality of good and evil?

JPS – Yes, because I don’t want to separate this world into the heroes and the bad guys. We spoke with Nicolas, the lead actor, a lot about this. People are both; sometimes the hero, sometimes the bad guy. We wanted to push the audience to identify with having to make this decision, if they would join in on the brutality or stay out of it at their own risk. It’s for me not about giving an answer, but posing a question.

LB – The plot is based on a true story. How did you find that story and was it easy to research it? Or is a lot of information about this era still held under wraps?

JPS – It’s based on an autobiographical book by Fernando Villagrán. We worked very closely with him. The scriptwriter Luis Emilio Guzmán is a friend of his, too. His research is fantastic. We also talked to many military people. As for the real Jorge Silva who inspired this movie, he sadly passed away two months before shooting started. As we didn’t know anything about militarism, we had to dive into that world to depict it without prejudice. So you feel like you’re in the shoes of this captain, and feel the weight of the consequences of his decisions. Consequences that will affect generations. I was born in 1978, and lived my first 10 years in a country where people died for thinking differently. I can’t forget that.

LB – So is it also about your personal memories from your childhood and youth?

JPS – Yeah, but also about the memories of all the Chileans who lived through those years. What happened in Chile is a tragedy in every sense. One of the characters, Hernandez, is an 18-year-old soldier who came from southern Chile to the city. One day, they suddenly tell him to pick one person from his neighbourhood and kill them. He’s a victim, too. I think no one living under a dictatorship gets to be happy.

LB – There have been several films recently, from different Latin American countries, that deal with the era of dictatorship. Did any of these influence you?

JPS – There are so many good films! Personally, I like films that explore the perspective of the so-called bad guys. There are so many movies I like, but at the moment I can’t think of a title.

LB – What do you hope the Berlinale audience will take away from your film?

JPS – I think the world needs more empathy, and this movie deals a lot with empathy.

LB – You mentioned it was very hard to realise this film. Why do you think there was pushback?

JPS – Making independent movies is always difficult. Ultimately, we had a fantastic production with Italy and Argentina. Co-production is often the only way to do a real independent movie these days. For years we pushed this story. At some point even a big movie platform got in, then dropped out again because of … well, many things. We couldn’t shoot in Chile since the military didn’t grant us access to the location. Finding a ’70s Air Force hangar is quite difficult. The only one we found was the real one – the actual location. So we went to talk with them, and there’s just no possibility of shooting here. We ended up shooting in the Argentine city of Mendoza.

LB – Do you already have a next project you’re working on?

JPS – Not one, many projects! But there’s none that I would want to talk about now. I’m still very focused on Red Hangar and getting it out there.

LB – Thank you so much for this interview!

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Juan Pablo Sallato is pictured at the top of this interview (courtesy of Berlinale press server © Villano); the other image is a still from The Red Hangar