World premiering at the Berlinale’s Perspectives sidebar, black & white Chilean drama “The Red Hangar” (“Hangar rojo”) chronicles little-known events behind the military takeover that ousted the country’s president, Salvador Allende. It takes place over the first three days of the takeover, revealing a long-silenced chapter of Chilean history about the Air Force officers and enlisted personnel who resisted the coup and suffered brutal retaliation from within their own ranks.
“As the country collapses under the weight of the military coup, the film observes that founding moment of horror, when the repressive apparatus has not yet fully taken shape. The camera moves through corridors where what remains unspoken reverberates louder than screams,” said documentarian Juan Pablo Sallato (“Red Eyes”) about his fiction feature debut. “There are no heroes here — only men trapped between the logic of power and the weight of guilt — and a spectator invited to look into that mirror and ask themselves which role they would have played.”
International sales are being handled by the French sales company Premium Films, in collaboration with its subsidiary MPM Premium (“The Coffee Table,” “I Am Not a Robot”). Its trailer debuts exclusively in Variety.
Based on the book “Shoot the Flock” (Disparen a la Bandada) by investigative journalist Fernando Villagrán, who was imprisoned during the dictatorship, the drama centers on Captain Jorge Silva, the former head of Air Force Intelligence, who is reassigned to instruct young cadets at the Air Force Academy. As the coup ripples across the nation, Silva is given a command that will alter his life forever: to turn the Academy into a prison, dubbed the Red Hangar, where detainees are brutalized and interrogated.
Silva died in August 2024 in London, where he lived in self-imposed exile following his incarceration during the dictatorship. He passed away two months before filming began after closely collaborating with the production.
“Jorge Silva was always very generous in sharing his perspective and his story. He never returned to live in Chile; he built his family and developed his entire professional life in London,” said Sallato, who related that when they went to talk to him, they could see that his military upbringing still prevailed.
“Even in the face of the few gestures of acknowledgment or reparations made by the Air Force toward some of his comrades who suffered under the dictatorship, he never compromised or relativized his decision, nor did he wish to take part in acts that did not feel genuine to him. He chose not to participate then, and he did not do so later either—not even symbolically,” Sallato told Variety.
Reflecting on making his first fiction feature, he mused: “While fiction moves faster than documentary during production, especially on set, independent fiction still requires a long development process, very similar to documentary filmmaking. The main difference lies in the rhythm of shooting: Fiction cannot afford extended timelines due to its structure and the size of the crew, whereas documentaries are far more flexible, sometimes allowing an entire team to fit into a single car.”
The project was brought to him by screenwriter Luis Emilio Guzmán, who had already been developing the adaptation with Villagrán. “From the beginning, it was a process grounded in research and long conversations with both Villagrán and Silva, whose perspective was essential. Listening to Silva recount the exact moment of the coup – from an intermediate position within the military, where orders arrive fragmented and must simply be carried out – revealed a moral ambiguity that deeply moved us.”
“We also chose to limit the story to a 36-hour period, capturing the moment when the country collapses and the repressive apparatus is only beginning to take shape. To recreate that experience emotionally, we needed the subjectivity that fiction offers, particularly through performance,” he added.
The decision to shoot it in black and white was inspired by Villagrán’s description of waking up to the coup that September and feeling that “everything began to feel black and white.” “That image felt immediately cinematic and planted the seed for the film’s visual approach,” Sallato said. “Black and white – through contrast, chiaroscuro, and gradation – became a precise visual analogy for the film’s themes, while also distinguishing ‘Red Hangar’ from other films about the period and evoking how that time lives in our collective memory.”
Casting Nicolás Zárate as Captain Silva, “like many decisions on the film, was guided by intuition.” “I had admired his theater work for years and had been searching for someone capable of embodying such a complex character. We met the next day, talked for hours, and by the end he simply agreed to do it. From the very beginning, Nicolás understood not only the character but also the film’s tone and moral complexity, and his performance became fundamental to the film.”
Nicolás Zárate as Captain Jorge Silva in ‘The Red Hangar’ Credit: Aron Hernandez
The Chilean-Argentine-Italian co-production, was shot mainly in Mendoza, Argentina, with support from the Argentine film institutue INCAA that was extended before the current administration came into power. “Support from INCAA was essential, as was a cash rebate in Mendoza secured by our partners at Brava Cine,” said Sallato.
Given that “The Red Hangar” world premieres just weeks before recently elected far right-wing leader José Antonio Kast assumes the presidency in Chile, the irony is not lost on Sallato.
“I wouldn’t dare to say how Silva would feel today about the current political climate in Chile or elsewhere in the world. But I imagine that, like many people, he would be deeply concerned about the global rise of authoritarian discourse and the growing normalization of impunity. History teaches us time and again that decisions – and also silences – not only define a specific historical moment, but project their consequences across generations, something he experienced firsthand.”
“The Red Hangar” is lead produced by Villano Producciones (Chile), led by Juan Ignacio Sabatini, in co-production with Brava Cine and HD Argentina (Argentina), Rain Dogs, Berta Films and Caravan (Italy), with the participation of TVN Italia.
