Alfonso Quiñones

Many socially-concerned priests in Catholic Latin America have at some time left their parish churches to go and work in the fields and factories of the poor. Such priests, usually adherents of "liberation theology," are called "worker-priests." This Chilean film tells the story of how one man became a "worker-priest" and won the trust of the poor.

This stark Chilean melodrama concerns itself with the plight of slum dwellers living outside Santiago. For many years they have, with great difficulty, been faithfully paying small sums to a real estate man. This man has said that by doing so they can obtain title to the miniscule plots of land their houses stand on. In fact, he has been swindling them and does not even own the land he has been "selling." One of the aggrieved slum dwellers confronts him about this while he is visiting the slum, and the real estate agent shoots him before everyone's eyes. The question confronting these witnesses is whether testifying against this monster will make their lives even more precarious.

A textile factory accountant takes charge of a complex machine that is the axis of the whole factory. This will slowly turn him into a slave.

This is the story of the criminal René Cerón Pardo, author of five murders, and imprisoned in the Santiago Penitentiary along with internationals Julio Ignacio Scarpizzo and El Loco Pepe. Scenes of his life are evoked, including his childhood - acted by the child Héctor Abarca -, his internment in the Penitentiary, the fifth murder and the last capture.