El Color del Camaléon

a film by Andrés Lübbert
Released
War reporter Jorge Lübbert flees Chile's dictatorship to the GDR in the 1970s. Years later, his son, raised in Belgium, begins a quest to learn more about his father's dark past.

At the age of 21, Jorge fell victim to a special department of Chile’s secret service. They considered him an ideal guinea pig for their most sophisticated experiment, combining espionage techniques and weapon handling with refined manipulation and torture, in order to turn him into one of their secret agents. But he manages to escape and flees to East Berlin.

Jorge is my father. He was never able to speak about his past. He is 60 now and a respected war zone cameraman, operating in most of the world’s conflict areas. He can keep his cool in extreme situations. His closed personality dominated my life and created a strange and distant relationship. Only recently he accepted my questioning and together we confront the ghosts of the past.

Een sterke en aangrijpende documentaire - Cinevox

The film unfolds like a puzzle whose pieces, when finally assembled, paint a picture of a father’s love for his son - Variety magazine

Het leven van Jorge Lübbert is er één die voorbestemd lijkt om door Michael Mann, Darren Aronofsky of Steven Spielberg verfilmd te worden. Maar mocht er ooit een Hollywood-film van komen, intenser en aangrijpender dan de documentaire die de Leuvense zoon Andrés Lübbert over zijn Chileense vader maakte kan die nooit worden. - Cinevox

In El Color del Camaléon vindt een zoon zijn vader en omgekeerd, en krijgt een Chileense samenleving die een nog onverwerkt verleden torst een spiegel voorgehouden. - Filmmagie

About the director

The Belgian-Chilean Andrés Lübbert has a Master in Audiovisual Arts from the RITCS film school in Brussels. His documentaries participated in more then 130 International Film Festivals in 20 countries, and won 19 prizes. Andrés tells stories about his intercultural environment about migration, identity, Human Rights and social issues.

Credits

written & directed by
Andrés Lübbert

co-produced by 
Flor Rubina

director of photography
David Bravo

edited by
Guillermo Badilla Coto

original music by
Alejandro Rivas Cottle

voice over actor
Nicolás Durán

sound engineers
Maarten Leemans
Dieter De Mulder
Juan Pablo Manriquez
Cesar Fernandez Boraz

Awards & festivals

Awards
special mention
main competition Dok.Fest München 2017

best director chilean competition
Sanfic – Santiago International Film Festival 2017

audience award 
Sanfic – Santiago International Film Festival 2017

best documentary
Human Rights Film Festival Panama 2017

special mention
Human Rights Film Festival Napoli 2017

best contemporary film
Festival del Cinema Latino Americano di Trieste 2017

best international documentary
Icaro Festival – International Film Festival of Central America 2017

best national documentary
Circulo de Criticos de Arte de Chile 2017

special mention
Premio Memoria Latin American Film Festival of Havana 2017

Official selections
Guadalajara IFF, Sofia IFF, Docville, Millenium International Documentary FF, Dok.fest München, Festival Encuentros del Otro Cine (EDOC), International Documentary Festival Buenos Aires (FIDBA), Festival de Cine de Lima, MARFICI (Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Mar del Plata), Human Rights FF Bolivia, SANFIC – Santiago International FF, Festival International du Film Nancy, Festival Internacional de Cine Viña del Mar, Golden Tree International Documentary Festival, Festival de Cine Internacional de Guayaquil, Viva! Latino FF NYC Int'l, Festival de Cine Documental de Queretaro. Festival de Biarritz Amérique Latine, Euro Tolerance Festival, Human Rights FF Panama, SURMIC – Muestra de cine Internacional Puerto Montt, Sao Paulo IFF, Festival del Cinema dei Diritti Umani di Napoli, Escales Documentaires, Antofadocs Documentary Festival Antofagasta, FIDOCS Documentary Festival Santiago, Verzio - International Human Rights Documentary FF, Festival de cine latinoamericano de Trieste, Icaro Festival – International Film Festival of Central America, Festival of New Latin American Cinema of La Havana.

Theatrical distributed in Belgium, Chile and Spain.

Production Details

an Off World production

in co-production with
Blume Producciones (CL)

in co-production with
VRT-Canvas, RTBF and Mollywood

with the support from
Flanders audiovisual fund (VAF|FILM)
le Centre du Cinéma de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
the tax shelter of the Belgian federal government
the Media Programme of the European Union

developed at Esodoc 2014