UPDATE: Ana de Armas has joined the cast.
EARLIER: Felipe Gálvez’s “The Settlers” was one of the true finds of Cannes 2023. The neo-western follows three horsemen hired by a wealthy landowner to clear his territory of its native population and open a route to the Atlantic.
In “The Settlers,” nastily rendered violence collides with Chile’s troubled past—one that seems to have been almost completely erased from the history books. It also cemented Gálvez as a talent to watch, making his sophomore effort highly anticipated.
Gálvez has now set his second feature film; it’s called “Impunity,” a spy thriller set in the late 1990s around the arrest of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Sebastian Stan will star, and since his character speaks Spanish for half the film, he is currently learning the language.
Based on Philippe Sands’ book “38 Londres Street,” the film centers on a former spy tasked with preventing the Chilean dictator’s escape after his arrest in London sparks international tensions. Pinochet was indicted for human rights abuses in Chile by former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and was detained in 1998 at London Bridge Hospital. He remained under house arrest for 18 months before being released by the U.K. government in 2000.
A 2026 production start is expected for “Impunity.” No further casting details have been announced yet.
Gálvez’s “The Settlers” competed in Un Certain Regard and for the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. The film won the FIPRESCI critics’ award, marking the first Chilean film to receive the prize.
As for Stan, formerly Bucky in the MCU, he’s coming off his Oscar-nominated turn as Donald Trump in “The Apprentice” and has now turned his attention to auteur-driven cinema, with upcoming films from Radu Jude, Cristian Mungiu, and Justin Kurzel.