The 76th Berlin Film Festival closes on Sunday, February 22nd, but new deals are still in the works. Among them is a production by France’s Epicenter Films, which has joined Chilean Matias Rojas (“A Place Called Dignity”) in his latest feature, “Dog Legs” (“Patas de Perro”), starring the incomparable Chilean Alfredo Castro (“The Count,” “The Club”).
They are joined by production partners from Chile (Tomás Gerlach Mora – A Simple Vista), Colombia (Federico Durán) and Germany (Linus Günther – Klinker).
Led by Daniel Chavannes, Julie Bergeron, Birgit Kemmer and Corentin Sénéchal, Epicenter’s truly international productions include Colombia’s Oscar entry The Poet, which acquired French distribution rights ahead of its Cannes premiere last May.
Inspired by the 1965 novel of the same name by Chilean writer Carlos Droghetto, who won the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1970, Doglegs is set in a remote town in southern Chile, where Bobi, a boy born with doglegs, is sheltered by his family. The status quo changes when Carlos (played by Castro), a loner new to town, decides to help Bobbi integrate into society. Rather, he is met with increasing hostility as people see him as a madman and the boy as a monster.
“Castro loves this book. He thinks it acutely reflects the identity crisis affecting young people today,” he said on behalf of fellow producers Duran (“El Paramo,” “Rebellion”), who joined the film as sole producer.
Alfred Castro
Provided by Masala Film
“Widely regarded as one of the most extreme and influential works of 20th century Chilean literature, this work, like its central character, the dog-legged boy Bobi, has long been described as strange, hybrid and ‘monstrous,'” Rojas said, adding, “When I first read it, I was deeply moved. I was immersed in a stream of consciousness that evokes loneliness, the struggle of living with untreated mental illness, and exploration.” Because of a sense of belonging and fear of losing what we have learned to love. ”
“Dog Legs has unsettling relevance in today’s world, shaped by mass immigration, widening inequality, and urgent debates about diversity and human rights. The film explores how society delineates the boundaries between ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal.’ “It reflects how we construct symbolic boundaries between people, and how those boundaries create pain, isolation, and violence. At its core, it engages with hybridity, liminality, and monstrosity as forms of resistance,” he reflected.
Director Rojas said the following about how he shot this feature-length film: “The camera follows Bobi as she moves between humans and animals, the intimate and the collective, forming a film that oscillates between the meditative and the visceral.”
The project development process included participation in the Guadalajara co-production meeting. Sitges fan pitch; Toulouse development film; Before arriving at the EFM Berlinale, we visited the Venice Production Bridge and the Cannes Marche du Film.
The third film, LOHAS, produced by Simple Vista, is in the process of being financed, with funding already secured for Chile and additional funding expected from co-producing countries in 2026. Location filming is scheduled for 2027 in Valdivia, southern Chile.
