1970
5.0 (8 votes)
1h 7m
Genres
Drama
Production Companies
Alcaman
The Penal Colony (La colonia penal)
Overview
A foreign journalist arrives on a small Pacific island 200 miles off the coast of South America. Once a leper colony, the island was later transformed into a prison and then, under U.N. mandate, made into an independent republic. Yet despite democratic structures, the inhabitants--who speak a strange dialect composed of Spanish and English--still obey the old prison rules. After sending back detailed accounts of the torture and repression seen everywhere, the journalist realizes that she has fallen into the trap created for her by the islanders: lacking natural resources, the island's main export is news.
Key Crew
Director: Raúl Ruiz
Story: Franz Kafka
Writer: Raúl Ruiz
Producer: Darío Pulgar
Director of Photography: Héctor Ríos
