BENOÎT PEETERS: Among the films you made in Chile during the 1970s, there is one that for a long time was believed to be lost. But it was refound recently, and even enjoyed commercial success in Chile. We’re speaking of Palomita Blanca. A very narrative-based, well-made film, in colour, but it seems to be a kind of UFO with regard to the situation you were in the process of living through ... What was your desire in involving yourself with this project?

RAÚL RUIZ: Once again, an opportunity arose ... There was a novel whose action took place just before Allende came to power: a kind of Romeo and Juliet story between a boy from the rich area and a girl from the poor sector. The book, written by Enrique Lafourcade, a very right-wing novelist, had enjoyed huge success in Chile; it had sold, if I remember correctly, a million copies ...

So certain members of the Socialist Party had the somewhat ridiculous idea of adapting this novel – which the entire left had criticised – to the screen, in the hope of making a film that would be a success and make money for the Revolution. It was a curious mix of bad faith and naïveté.

BP: But the weirdest thing of all is that they came to you with a project of this kind ...

RR: I have never understood, or even tried to understand, why I was approached with this project. The person most happy about it was Lafourcade, because he really liked Les Tres Tristes Tigres ... Obviously, what intrigued me was to offer a sort of critical reading of the novel, to deconstruct it in some sense. But when, during the shoot, some of the people in charge became afraid of the direction it was taking, they tried to replace me with another director. Lafourcade fiercely defended me.

In short, I found myself in the process of finishing this film on the very eve of the Coup d’Etat. I remember precisely completing the mix on 25 July 1973, the day of my thirty-second birthday. All that was left was the grading and the print production ... After Pinochet came to power, the film was held up for a long time. Not really for political reasons, at least not officially, but rather because of details: some language, a bed scene ...