The Dancer and the Thief

Following the 1988 national plebiscite and the arrival of democracy in Chile, the president declares a general amnesty for all prisoners who were convicted of non-violent crimes.

Among these released prisoners are the young Ángel Santiago and the veteran Vergara Grey, a notorious thief. The two have different aspirations: while Vergara Grey only wishes to reunite with his family and start anew, Ángel dreams of seeking revenge against the prison warden and carrying out a major heist with Grey. However, Ángel's plans change when he meets the young Victoria, a ballet dancer who hasn't spoken since losing her parents as a child during the Chilean dictatorship.

The lives of all three characters are irreversibly transformed as they face a new future.

• Ricardo Darín as Vergara Grey
• Abel Ayala as Ángel Santiago
• Miranda Bodenhöfer as Victoria Ponce
• Ariadna Gil as Teresa Capriatti
• Julio Jung as warden Santoro

Adapting the Antonio Skármeta's novel El baile de la Victoria, Fernando Trueba, Jonás Trueba and Skármeta himself collaborated in the writing of the screenplay.^[1] The film was produced by Fernando Trueba P.C.^[2] Shooting started in Chile in July 2008.^[3]

Trueba said of the film: “I am proud of how I have portrayed [Santiago], I believe it is very interesting visually. This is above all a romantic film, but with elements of comedy and film noir. It’s film-noir and it is western, it’s realist and very romantic. Definitively Latin American.”^[4]

Distributed by Notro Films,^[2] the film was theatrically released in Spain on 27 November 2009. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards,^[5] but it was not nominated.

• List of Spanish films of 2009
• Cinema of Chile
• List of submissions to the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Spanish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film