Inspired by real events, Bestia enters the life of a secret police agent during the Chilean military dictatorship. Her relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations all reveal grim fractures in her mind and in the country.
Chile was ruled by an authoritarian military dictatorship ruled for seventeen years, between 1973, and 1990. Overall, the regime left over 3,000 dead or missing, tortured tens of thousands of prisoners, and drove an estimated 200,000 Chileans into exile.
Tainted by the atrocities she has committed, the police agent’s mind begins to fracture. Resulting in vivid and surreal dreams that are Lynchian in quality.
Heightened by the decision to tell this story through the medium of animation. Rather than using cartoon or CGI, the film using stop motion animation with felt puppets with porcelian faces. The fragility of the heads in juxtaposition with the steeliness of their mindsets. Although as the film proves, themselves not impervious to breaking.
Being a silent film combined with the motionless porcelian face of the protagonist, it is a testament to the screenplay and visual storytelling by Hugo Covarubbias that the short paints such a vivid portrait of the lasting damage done to a country and its citizens.
Bestia screens as part of the Animated Shorts Programme at this year’s Sundance Film Festival
Rating: 
Director: Hugo Covarubbias
Runtime: 16 minutes
Country: Chile
