La Casa Lobo is an utterly unusual stop motion animated film. Visually stunning and horrifying, it tells the story of Maria, a young woman who lives in a German colony in Chile, who has been threatened with solitary confinement for not taking proper care of pigs on the farm. She escapes into the woods, where she is chased by a wolf, but finds a small, abandoned cottage where she seeks shelter.
Inspired by The Wizard of Oz and fairy tales such Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood, directors León and Cociña say that their work is a “version of the return home, after all of the attacks and betrayals against our place of origin, we return to it despite its imperfections.”
The film alludes to events in the "Colonia Dignidad", the infamous German colony established by Nazis after the Second World War - a place known for torture, slavery and child abuse. With hand-made, life-size models, this eerie and confronting film taps into the psychological trauma associated with colonialism, cults and cultural dissidence.
La Casa Lobo is simultaneously enticing and disturbing. The dark and distorted audio-visual landscape paired with the tragic and gruesome historical undercurrent create an unforgettable film-experience.
Director Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña
Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña live and work in Santiago de Chile and have collaborated since 2007. They work in animation films, installations, paintings and sculptures, among other media. Both studied at the Universidad Católica de Chile. León also studied at UDK - Berlin and at De Ateliers, Amsterdam.
For the production of their films, they combine techniques such as photography, drawing, sculpture and performance. León and Cociña won several awards, and their films regularly screen in international film festivals. Their work has been exhibited in several museums and biennials, among which are Whitechapel Gallery, Guggenheim New York, KW Berlin, the Venice Biennale and Art Basel. La Casa Lobo is their first feature film that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018, where they received the Caligari Award.
Catalina Vergara, filmmaker and producer of La casa lobo heads Globo Rojo Films, a production company she founded in 2009. Together with Cristián Soto she made the documentary The last station (2012), that run in the DOK Leipzig, among other festivals.
Moderation: Claudia Sandberg and Daniela Müller (both from University of Melbourne).
La Casa Lobo will be available to stream online on the 13th and 14th of April 2021, along with an artist talk to discuss the film on the 15th of April 2021 at 12pm AEST.
