Mysterious and based on a real event: this is “42 days in the dark”, the first Netflix series produced in Chile

It is the first limited series made in Chile for the main streaming platform and is produced by Fábula, the company of Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín, which won an Oscar for A Fantastic Woman (2018) and earned nominations for Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021). 42 Days in the Dark is based on a real case, the disappearance of Viviana Haeger in Puerto Varas, near Puerto Montt, in 2010. Its premiere will be on May 11.

In this fictional version directed by Claudia Huaiquimilla (Bad Junta) and Gaspar Antillo (Nobody knows I'm here), Aline Küppenheim will be Verónica Montes, who disappears from her home without a trace. His sister Cecilia (played by Claudia Di Girolamo) will then begin the investigation, which will become an increasingly complex and tortuous mystery. They are accompanied by Gloria Münchmeyer, Pablo Macaya, Daniel Alcaíno, Amparo Noguera, Nestor Cantillana, Claudio Arrendondo and Julia Lubbert.

The Haeger case was among the most controversial and media exposure in recent Chilean history. The woman, an accountant who had retired to raise her daughters, appeared in a state of decomposition, in the interroof of her house, 42 days after the alleged abduction reported by her husband, engineer Jaime Anguita.

Haeger's sister and mother suspected that he had been responsible, but Anguita was exonerated for lack of evidence, in 2017, after a two-year detention in pre-trial detention. The only one convicted of the crime is José Pérez Mancilla, former employee of the engineer on a property, who confessed to committing the murder at the request of Anguita and in exchange for money.

The script was inspired by You Know Who: Notes on the Homicide of Viviana Haeger, a book that journalist Rodrigo Fluxá published in 2019 in which the details of the judicial process and the flaws of the investigation were revealed. 42 Days in the Dark shows how Claudia, in a desperate search, encounters the combined difficulties of the authorities' negligence, harassment of the press and the social roots of gender-based violence.

“There is a lot of talent involved in this project,” said Angela Poblete, executive producer of the series. “We have at the head of a director and a director, Claudia and Gaspar, young, talented and with great sensitivity when it comes to telling stories and giving depth to the characters. Chile is a small market, we have 18 million inhabitants, and having the opportunity to tell our stories to the world has been a process that has involved tremendous work, but above all it has happened thanks to the fact that we have tremendous talents capable of turning local stories into global issues.”

On the relevance of the issue, Huaiquimilla added: “The disappearance of a woman cannot be treated like any police enigma; it is important to establish that gender-based violence is a structural problem that concerns society as a whole and is preventable. In every line of script and decision we have made, we have tried to work with that perspective.”

Its co-director, Antillo, stressed: “I think it's a challenging opportunity to reinterpret the thriller genre to tell an absolutely Chilean story, highlighting our identity. But also by accounting for our prejudices and contradictions.”

Haeger's daughters, Vivian and Susan, were upset by the making of this series. In a column for the newspaper El Llanquihue, “The thriller about my mother”, they said they expected “the worst” of the production. “Our story is already quite public, but it's still ours. We would like to make it visible that with this they relive difficult moments and painful processes”, they added.

Juan de Dios Larraín, executive producer of the fiction, said that the work was “a challenge and a tremendous responsibility”. The co-founder of Fábula, a company that makes film, television, advertising and podcasts, added: “We are very focused on quality, both in the script, on the staging and on all aspects of production.”

In addition to Poblete and Larraín, the executive production features Mariane Hartard and Gunther Kaempfe. The screenplay is by Huaiquimilla and Fluxá and Enrique Videla was an editor and consultant.

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