At MIA 2022, the directing duo Samuel León and Saúl Valverde pitched Diary of an Infiltrator, a 4×45’ docuseries project set to be filmed between Chile, Rome, Berlin and Buenos Aires. The series revolves around the “incredible, untold story” of anarchist filmmaker Miguel Herberg who infiltrated Pinochet’s Chilean military regime from 1972 to 1974, exposing its murderous iniquities.
With the help of Renzo and Roberto Rossellini, Herberg, the Spanish filmmaker pretended to be a fierce anti-communist filmmaker. Over the course of two years, he gained access to hundreds of documents, films and photographs showing how the Chilean coup d’état was cooked up and the wave of repression and violence occurring after the overthrow.
He also managed to get his hands on some unique footage shot in the Chacabuco and Pisagua concentration camps, which he later brought to light, helping hundreds of prisoners to save their lives. As a result of his actions, he was blacklisted by the military authorities. In Diary of an Infiltrator, the courageous anarchist resumes his journey after 50 years to find what remains of the regime, accompanying the viewers through a history of film, espionage and memory.
“We will get to know this incredibly story of infiltration in Pinochet’s ranks, and of espionage at the limit of the plausible. The tone of the series will be marked by the unique personality of Miguel Herberg. […] He will guide us through the story through interviews as well as human and historical testimonies. The production will also rely on never-seen-before documents from the time. Like the best spy films, our documentary series will combine pure thriller with political and historical cinema,” León and Valverde explain in their directors’ statement.
They define it as “a journey along the razor’s edge of the most turbulent years in Chile’s history” and “a story that deserves to be told, listened to and debated,” capable of building historical memory but also offering “genuine entertainment.”
Born in Valparaiso, León studied cinematography at the Escuela de Cine de Chile in Santiago. During his career, he covered many role including film commissioner, production assistant, location scout, casting director, assistant director, producer and director in advertising, series, documentary and fiction projects. An alumnus of Madrid’s Septima Ars Film School, Valverde worked on several documentaries, TV programmes, commercials, video installations for museums and transmedia content.
Speaking about their project to Business Doc Europe, the production team defined it as “a must-see” and stressed on “how significant it will be [for the viewers] to get to know the exceptional and different history of our protagonist, Miguel Herberg, with Chile, with its past and its present.”
“We felt the pitch was well received and we saw the interest our project prompted. We mainly emphasised the uniqueness of our protagonist’s story, the great archive we have and the imminence of the 50th commemoration of the coup d’état in Chile,” they added.
The estimated budget of Diary of an Infiltrator is €1,016,700, with €120,000 already secured. The project is produced by Samuel León for Chile’s Bioesferica Filmes and Alberto Rull for Spain’s Vertice 360, the latter being the outfit behind local blockbusters and series such as Pagafantas, The Other Side of the Bed, Doctor Mateo, A Matter of Sex and The Princess of Eboli. The firm also produced the award-winning environmental documentary feature Colza, The Invisible Killer.
The team is now finalising pre-production on Diary of an Infiltrator, with filming set to start later this winter. Bioesferica Filmes and Vertice 360 are currently looking for potential co-production partners and international pre-sales.
