France’s Epicentre Boards Alfredo Castro Pic, ‘Dog Legs’ (EXCLUSIVE)
The 76th Berlin Film Festival winds down on Sunday, Feb. 22 but new deals are still brewing. Among them is that from France’s Epicentre Films, which has boarded “Dog Legs” (“Patas de perro”), the latest feature from Chile’s Matias Rojas (“A Place Called Dignity”), starring Chile’s inimitable Alfredo Castro (“The Count,” “The Club”).
It joins producing partners from Chile (Tomás Gerlach Mora – A Simple Vista), Colombia (Federico Durán) and Germany (Linus Günther – Klinker).
Led by Daniel Chabannes, Julie Bergeron, Birgit Kemmer and Corentin Sénéchal, Epicentre’s truly international slate includes Colombia’s Oscar-entry “A Poet,” to which it picked up French distribution rights ahead of its Cannes premiere last May.
Inspired by the 1965 eponymous novel by Chilean literary giant Carlos Droguett, winner of Chile’s National Prize for Literature in 1970, “Dog Legs” takes place in a remote Southern Chilean town where Bobi, a young boy born with dog legs, is kept hidden by his family. The status quo changes when Carlos, a loner who is new in town (played by Castro), decides to help Bobi integrate into society. He is instead met with increasing hostility as people view him as a madman and the boy a monster.
“Castro loves this book. He sees it as a sharp reflection of the current identity crisis affecting the youth of today,” said Durán (“El Paramo,” “Rebellion”), speaking on behalf of his fellow producers and who has boarded the film as an individual producer.
“Widely regarded as one of the most extreme and influential works of 20th-century Chilean literature, it has long been described as strange, hybrid and ‘monstrous,’ much like its central character: Bobi, the boy with dog’s legs,” said Rojas, adding: “The first time I read it, I was deeply moved; I immersed myself in its stream of consciousness, which evokes loneliness, the struggle of living with an untreated psychiatric condition, the search for belonging and the fear of losing what one has learned to love.”
“In today’s world – shaped by mass migrations, widening inequalities and urgent debates on diversity and human rights – ‘Dog Legs’ resonates with unsettling relevance. The film reflects on how societies construct symbolic borders between the ‘normal’ and the ‘abnormal’ and how these borders generate pain, isolation and violence. At its core, it engages with hybridity, liminality and the monstrous as forms of resistance,” he reflected.
Speaking of his plans on how to shoot the feature, Rojas said: “The camera will follow Bobi in his passage between the human and the animal, the intimate and the collective, shaping a film that moves between the contemplative and the visceral.”
The project’s development journey included participating in the Guadalajara Co-Production Meeting; Sitges FanPitch; Cinéma en Développement Toulouse; Venice Production Bridge and Cannes Marché du Film before it landed at the EFM Berlinale.
Lead produced by A Simple Vista, Rojas’ third feature is in its advanced financing phase, with Chilean funds already secured and additional funding from each co-producing country expected in 2026. A location shoot is planned for Valdivia, Southern Chile, in 2027.
It joins producing partners from Chile (Tomás Gerlach Mora – A Simple Vista), Colombia (Federico Durán) and Germany (Linus Günther – Klinker).
Led by Daniel Chabannes, Julie Bergeron, Birgit Kemmer and Corentin Sénéchal, Epicentre’s truly international slate includes Colombia’s Oscar-entry “A Poet,” to which it picked up French distribution rights ahead of its Cannes premiere last May.
Inspired by the 1965 eponymous novel by Chilean literary giant Carlos Droguett, winner of Chile’s National Prize for Literature in 1970, “Dog Legs” takes place in a remote Southern Chilean town where Bobi, a young boy born with dog legs, is kept hidden by his family. The status quo changes when Carlos, a loner who is new in town (played by Castro), decides to help Bobi integrate into society. He is instead met with increasing hostility as people view him as a madman and the boy a monster.
“Castro loves this book. He sees it as a sharp reflection of the current identity crisis affecting the youth of today,” said Durán (“El Paramo,” “Rebellion”), speaking on behalf of his fellow producers and who has boarded the film as an individual producer.
“Widely regarded as one of the most extreme and influential works of 20th-century Chilean literature, it has long been described as strange, hybrid and ‘monstrous,’ much like its central character: Bobi, the boy with dog’s legs,” said Rojas, adding: “The first time I read it, I was deeply moved; I immersed myself in its stream of consciousness, which evokes loneliness, the struggle of living with an untreated psychiatric condition, the search for belonging and the fear of losing what one has learned to love.”
“In today’s world – shaped by mass migrations, widening inequalities and urgent debates on diversity and human rights – ‘Dog Legs’ resonates with unsettling relevance. The film reflects on how societies construct symbolic borders between the ‘normal’ and the ‘abnormal’ and how these borders generate pain, isolation and violence. At its core, it engages with hybridity, liminality and the monstrous as forms of resistance,” he reflected.
Speaking of his plans on how to shoot the feature, Rojas said: “The camera will follow Bobi in his passage between the human and the animal, the intimate and the collective, shaping a film that moves between the contemplative and the visceral.”
The project’s development journey included participating in the Guadalajara Co-Production Meeting; Sitges FanPitch; Cinéma en Développement Toulouse; Venice Production Bridge and Cannes Marché du Film before it landed at the EFM Berlinale.
Lead produced by A Simple Vista, Rojas’ third feature is in its advanced financing phase, with Chilean funds already secured and additional funding from each co-producing country expected in 2026. A location shoot is planned for Valdivia, Southern Chile, in 2027.