Filming on Amalia y el Diablo has wrapped after five weeks on location in Montevideo and Florida (Uruguay). Written and directed by Rodrigo Spagnuolo, the film features Ana Claro Guanco (El susurro), Paco Sepúlveda (also director of Historias), Hugo Piccinini (the series Barrabrava and Robo mundial), Rui Ricardo Díaz, Fernanda Thurann, Laura Grandinetti (Miss Carbón) and Ezequiel Rodríguez (Cuando acecha la maldad).

Set in the late 19th century in the Uruguayan countryside, the story unfolds on an isolated estate where a colonel prepares to leave for war and send his young daughters to a convent. Amalia (played by Ana Clara Guanco), unlike her sisters, silently resigns to that fate. But the arrival of Maurice (played by Paco Sepúlveda), a young French phrenologist who believes he can explain human behaviour through the study of skulls, disrupts the household’s routine. What begins as a diagnosis turns into attraction, and an unexpected, powerful bond forms between him and Amalia. But it isn’t long before the violence of war crashes into their lives. In a world where certainties crumble and the law of the jungle prevails, Amalia and Maurice must confront a brutal reality that shakes the foundations of everything they believed.

According to Spagnuolo, “Amalia y el Diablo is a drama with elements of a psychological thriller. But it also engages with the Western genre from its own unique perspective: a Creole and Latin American one, where the landscape takes centre stage in contrast to the characters’ inner turmoil. The backdrop of late Romanticism – with its celebration of emotion, melancholic individualism and inner conflict – stands in stark contrast to the brutality of the facts and a reality that demanded I address it. I’m also drawn to this period because of its contradictions: while it celebrated ideals such as heroism, love and freedom, life was permeated by oppressive structures and the violence inherent in a society undergoing transformation. In that context, nineteenth-century science also reveals its own tensions,” he concludes. 

Rodrigo Spagnuolo has written the screenplays for the films Noche americana by Alejandro Bazzano, El asistente by Augusto Tejada, and the series Se llamaba Pedro Infante, also directed by Bazzano. He has also worked as a screenwriter and co-director on the documentary series La huella de Sepé and the feature film Welkom (2015), as well as a script doctor, consultant and development writer. In theatre, his plays have been staged in Uruguay, Spain, Argentina and Colombia, receiving recognition from institutions and critical acclaim.

Amalia y el Diablo is produced by Ignacio García Cucucovich and Gustavo Hernández Ibañez of the Uruguayan company Mother Superior Films, in partnership with Rodrigo Spagnuolo of Antídoto Cine, and co-produced with Lilicar Films and Guainot Produce (Spain), Aramos Cine (Argentina) and Brisa Films (Brazil).