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Dictators don't die, neither do vampires!

El Conde (The Count, Chilean; 2023)
Director: Pablo Larraín

The first thing the viewers notice at the movie's start is the ‘fraktur’ fonts used in the opening credits. As we know, this font is linked to the Neo-Nazi movement, Germanness and possibly Hitler himself. 

This movie can be classified as a cruel comedy depicting past Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, not only in a bad light but one with no redeemable features. He is portrayed as a true-blooded 250-year-old vampire from the 18th century. He is said to have been born French as a foot soldier to King Louis XIV. Escaping from the hullaballoo surrounding the French Revolution, he scoots off with Marie Antionette's guillotined head. He ends up in Chile in the 1930s after much gallivanting. 

Now, in the present time, after all the looting, killing and his trial, Pinochet wants to die, but he cannot as he is a vampire. He summons his wife and five children to a secluded island to plan his death. He, however, has an elaborate plan to fake his own death and start life anew elsewhere. 

One of the children wants to know the total sum of his estate, so she brings in an accountant. The accountant's daytime job is being a nun, and she is hellbent on exorcising Pinochet. If this is complicated, wait until the nun falls for Pinochet and is bitten to be turned into a vampire. Pinochet goes bonkers for the nun.

During Pinochet's terror reign over Chile, he stayed that long because of his Anglophile friends. He defeated the socialist-minded Arrende, even though he was legitimately elected because the Americans did not want Soviet influence on Latin America. We know of Pinochet's help for Britain during the Falkland Wars.

Guess who comes to save the day? Margaret Thatcher. She is Pinochet's mother. Thatcher was a prostitute in King Louis XIV's Paris when she was raped and left her child at an orphanage after being bitten by a strigoi (spirit). It seems she cannot afford to lose her son's love. She comes to the rescue. They kill everybody and consume lots of young blood. Thatcher leaves with a very young Pinochet.

Lesson to learn: An autocrat is being groomed somewhere. The last dictator is not the last one, and neither is the next. Interestingly allegorical. The corrupt, violent dictators are like vampires; they do not die so easily and may be immortal, too.


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Location: Tierra del Fuego

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