SURIRE

The Surire Salt Flat is located in the Chilean high plateau 4,300 meters above sea level and on the border with Bolivia. Extending for 28,000 acres, it forms part of Lauca National Park which was designated a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1981. Its lagoons and wetlands are home to flamingos, llamas and vicuñas, a protected animal related to alpacas. A handful of Aymara elders still live in this desert. They are the last survivors of the local indigenous culture. Scattered among them in this beautiful and isolated region are a handful of springs, animals and are the trucks and machines that mine borax from an important deposit. Bettina Perut’s and Iván Osnovikoff’s film reveals the region’s beauty and solitude, the cultural decline of the Aymara and the development of the region. Surire documents the coexistence of the disparate elements that inhabit it and captures the places, customs and living things, as they evolve over time.

THE FILMMAKERS

Bettina Perut was born in Rome, Italy, in 1970. Iván Osnovikoff was born in Puerto Montt, Chile, in 1966.

Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff met in 1997 and co-directed Chichichi Lelele Martín Vargas from Chile (2000), an observational documentary film about the comeback of a fallen boxing idol and his impact on Chilean society. Between 2000 and 2002 they produced and directed A Man Aside (2002), the film is a deep and raw metaphor on the human condition, as it depicts the decline of Ricardo Liaño and his obsession to become a millionaire while in his eighties. During 2003 and 2004 they directed and produced Clever Monkey Pinochet Versus La Moneda’s Pigs (2004), provocative experimental documentary, the film details the military coup of 1973 through children reenacting the historical events. In 2004 Perut and Osnovikoff moved to the United States for the making of Welcome to New York (2006), an inventive documentary in which the directors show their irreverent and sarcastic vision of the “Capital of the World.” In 2006 they went back to Chile and began the production of News (2009), the documentary questions the methods through which a country creates the day to day reality through the media. Afterwards, the directors made The Death of Pinochet (2011), a sarcastic chronicle of the death and funerals of the former Chilean dictator.

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS

Trento Film Festival, Italia
FIFE International Environmental Film Festival (France)
IFF District Film Festival, Focus, Mexico
Planet Cinema Official Selection, México
DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Finland
Patagonian Film Festival FECIPA, Chile
EDOC Encounters of the Other Cinema, Ecuador
Iran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran
Visions of Reality International Film Festival, Switzerland
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands
SANFIC Santiago International Film Festival, Chile
Astra Film Festival, Romania
IDFF, Flahertiana International Documentary Film Festival, Russia
BAFICI Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, Argentina
International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema, Cuba
Doc Buenos Aires, (Panorama), Argentina
BIFED Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary, Turkey
Antofadocs- Antofagasta International Documentary Film Festival, Chile
BLED Film Festival, Bled Slovenia International Competition, Bled Slovenia
Andean Window International Film Festival, Argentina
Arica Nativa International Film Festival, Chile
FECICH Chilean Film Festival, Chile
FEDOCHI Chiloé Documentary Film Festival, Chile
Transcinema Festival, Perú
“Silver Nanook” Award Flahertiana IDFF (Russia)
Best Chilean Film SANFIC IFF (Chile)
“Kinema” Award SANFIC IFF (Chile)
Best Film Bozcaada IFF (Turkey)
Best Film FECIPA (Chile)
Best Direction, Best Photography, Best Sound FECICH (Chile)
Jury Mention Ventana Andina IFF (Argentina)
Jury Mention FEDOCHI (Chile)