El agente topo (en)

El agente topo

Selection: 

Director: 

Maite Alberdi

Country: 

  • Chile

Format: 

Feature film

Type: 

Documentary

Script writer(s): 

Maite Alberdi

Synopsis: 

Romulo is a private investigator hired to study an elderly retirement home where residents might be victims of abuse. He hires Oscar, an 82-year-old Mole Agent, and trains him to become a spy. Inside the asylum, Oscar records what at first seems like irregular behavior. But his camera is always late to capture the denouncing material, which does not yield any concrete evidence other than normal life. As days go by, Oscar realizes the residents’ loneliness and identifies with it; he thinks his family forgot about him and starts to feel just like his companions.
From the absurd comedic humor of crime novels and the excuse of identifying alleged illicit behavior, The Mole Agent is an anthropological investigation that leads us to the question of exclusion of the elderly from daily life, portraying deep-rooted social behavior in regards to the way of life of Senior Adults in Latin America.

Visual concept: 

This film has the challenge of portraying a police documentary, seeming like a traditional fiction film at the beginning, without being one. Through the mission of the detective and the mole agent, the film will depict an apparent traditional narrative approach. But while the story takes place, it will derive into an observational documentary, leading us into the intimate and privileged point of view of the mole agent, portraying what happens in first person within the asylum premises.