If you see a large number of historical scenes in the opening, you will feel that this should be a film that is biased towards historical biographical nature, just like "Rabe's Diary" written and directed by the director of the film, Florie Gallenberg. Gallenberg seems to have a special liking for the subject matter adapted from real events. "Rabe's Diary" targets the "Chinese Schindler" German businessman Rabe during World War II, while "The Colony of Dignity" points to the focus of attention. In the 1970s, it was located in Chile in a cult territory called the Colony of Dignity. It can be said that for most people, this is an extremely mysterious event. At least before the arrest of the cult’s "leader" Paul Schaefer in 2005, few outsiders knew the details, and even more viewers like ours did not know about it until they watched this film.
However, it is a pity that such a work with such attractive material and casts of actors such as Emma Watson and Daniel Bruch has received a lot of media coverage after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival that year. Negative Ratings. Ironically, the film's box office in the UK's first weekend was only a pitiful £47, which is probably not enough to show the cost of a movie.
The reason for the poor response is obvious, and Gallenberg, the director, should bear the main responsibility. A film adapted from a real event does not provide enough pavement for the formation of a "dignified colony", and shows the evil deeds of this cult and its leader to the end. The criticism of religion, human nature, and politics is also quite superficial, but instead focuses on energy. Used to create the old-fashioned tense atmosphere, making the film more like a second-rate thriller. At the actor level, the two leading actors Watson and Bruch also seem to not call much, but the Swedish actor Michael Enqvist, who played the role of the leader and died last year, is more attractive.
Regardless of the movie, what interests me more is the real events behind this mediocre work. According to reports, Paul Schaefer was a Nazi fanatic who admired Hitler very much. He served as a medical soldier in the Luftwaffe during World War II. In 1961, he tricked his followers to come to Chile and established a quasi-national cult community "Colony of Dignity." This 30,000 hectare area was surrounded by barbed wire and was isolated from the world. Schaefer portrays himself into a role similar to God, ruling the believers cruelly, forcing them to work day and night, and any private life is subject to his interference.
Based on our knowledge of most cults, it seems that the leaders will enjoy the "service" of the female congregation. But don't expect Emma Watson to have a large-scale performance, because the bishop of "The Colony of Dignity" is not good at this. It turns out that Schaefer is a perverted sex monster with pedophilia. He stipulates that children born to couples in the sect must be raised by everyone, and he has the privilege to bathe these children personally. Shockingly, Schaefer often asked some of the boys to sleep with him in his bedroom, and shamelessly claimed that this was his "superior grace" to the children called. Without exception, these boys have been subjected to cruel and inhuman sexual abuse by Schaefer, which is also implicitly reflected in the film.
The "colonies of dignity" have existed for so long, and the atrocities in it have been concealed by false surfaces such as "philanthropy", "the devout and diligence of believers", and "a beautiful paradise". They all worshipped the Chilean military dictator at the time. Gifted by Gusto Pinochet. Pinochet and Schaefer have a cooperative relationship of mutual use. The former and the Chilean government face the "colonies of dignity" while whitewashing them, while using it as the torture center of Chilean intelligence agencies. There were hundreds of dictatorships in politics. The prisoner was imprisoned and tortured here, dozens of people were murdered, and the protagonist in the film was also detained in this place for this reason. Although Schaefer was arrested in 2005, it was not until Pinochet's death that the new Chilean government began to liquidate Schaefer. In the end, the wicked leader was sentenced to 33 years in prison and died in prison after serving five years.
In fact, not only Chile, but a considerable number of countries in South America are inextricably linked with the Nazis. During World War II, countries such as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Bolivia all fell to the Axis powers. Many local German companies handed their profits to Nazi espionage organizations as funds for their activities. The pro-Nazi alliance led by Argentina also continuously supplied industrial materials to Germany and even provided money laundering services. After the defeat of Germany, many Nazis and right-wing German immigrants fled to South America, and brought a lot of property looted in the war with them. Under the money offensive of the Germans, most South American governments chose to keep their eyes closed. At the same time, the fascist rule of many countries in South America also hit it off with the Nazis. As a result, South America, far from the center of the world, became a base where the remnants of the Nazis could survive.
Throughout the development process of South American countries (which can also be extended to Latin America) in modern times, although they have had prosperity in the early part of the last century, they have remained turbulent after World War II. Either the right-wing military government is dictatorship, or the left-wing government has overcorrected after it came to power. Even if it belongs to an independent country in form, it has long been dependent on the Great Powers such as the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union in economic and political terms. The emergence of the "dignified colony" is precisely one of the manifestations of this phenomenon. The reason is that the long history of colonialism and the disadvantages of geopolitics are the root of the South American sorrow. However, it is precisely these factors that gave birth to the magic realism rooted in the traditional indigenous culture of Latin America and the oligarch’s dark rule. Only then did the great García Márquez and his magic realism literature have the same. The great Gilmour del Toro and his magical realism movies.
♑
View more about Colonia reviews
