Produced by Red Collision Studios and Afro Films, the five-country co-production also stars Germany's Christine Neubauer and Chilean thesp Tamara Acosta
“La Puta Vida,” a new international feature starring Colombian actor Claudio Cataño – star of Netflix’s acclaimed adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” – has begun filming in Chile.
A five-country co-production led by Columbia’s Red Collision Studios and Chile’s Afro Films, “La Puta Vida” is directed by Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Araya Serrano.
Starring alongside Cataño are Germany’s Christine Neubauer, recently seen in Daniel Alvarenga’s period drama “Hundswut,” and Chilean thesp Tamara Acosta.
Described as “an intense blend of road movie, thriller and emotional drama set in northern Chile in 2005,” “La Puta Vida” follows Emma (Neubauer), a woman who discovers she was taken from her biological parents and raised inside the infamous Colonia Dignidad cult. Determined to uncover the truth about her origins, she embarks on a journey across the Atacama Desert alongside Olga, a charismatic con artist fleeing from Jairo (Cataño), a ruthless hitman sent to kill her and recover stolen money.
As the three characters become trapped in a dangerous journey through the vast barren terrain of northern Chile, buried wounds, betrayals and unexpected emotional bonds begin to emerge against the unforgiving landscapes of the world’s driest desert.
“‘La Puta Vida’ is both a physical and spiritual journey of two women pursued by a hitman across the Atacama Desert,” said director Sebastián Araya Serrano. “Through this extreme journey, Emma, Olga and Jairo will profoundly transform their identities while confronting the possibility of a second chance: finding a family, stopping the escape, or even choosing to stop killing. The desert becomes a monumental blank canvas where the characters move from emotional aridity toward rebirth.”
Speaking to Variety, Cataño explained what drew him to the project: “First of all, the setting where the story takes place and the journey the character undergoes, both physically and spiritually, are, so to speak, ingredients I found deeply unsettling. All of the characters transform and are active. Beyond that, the genres – or rather, the genres at play: thriller, Western, and ultimately metaphysical – make the film fascinating. On a personal level, the cultural exchange and the chance to work in a Latin American context, which is also a global one, more than fulfill the purpose of broadening cultural dialogue and cinema in our own language.”
The actor added that his recent success with the award-winning García Márquez adaptation has increased international opportunities.
“‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ opened a door – not only for me as an actor, but more broadly for Colombian talent as something to be exported and exchanged. It was, and continues to be, a window with enormous impact, and through it I was able to work to very high standards, which of course has a positive effect.”
For Bogotá-based Red Collision Studios, “La Puta Vida” marks one of the company’s most ambitious steps in its regional expansion, positioning itself as a key partner in productions of international scope.
“La Puta Vida” is an international co-production between Red Collision Studios, Afro Films, Santiago Film in Germany, Faro Hub in Uruguay and Viringo Media in Spain. Diego Conejero, Jose Luis Campos, Alejandro Ugarte, Vanessa Gómez and Sebastián Caballero are producing.
“Bringing ‘La Puta Vida’ to filming in Chile has been an enormous challenge because of its scale, its multiple locations across the Atacama Desert, and the complexity of a five-country international co-production,” the producers said. “For Red Collision Studios it is a source of pride to drive a project of this ambition, both narratively and logistically; that very sense of risk and emotional depth is what gives the project such a powerful identity and clear international potential.”
The creative team also includes cinematographer Jorge González, known for his work on David Albala’s 2020 thriller “Jailbreak Pact” (“Pacto de Fuga”), and production designer Bernardita Baeza, whose recent credits include Diego Céspedes’ Cannes Un Certain Regard award winner “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.”