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Poster for The Penal Colony
Alcaman

The Penal Colony

1970 67 min Spanish
Wubly rating 6.1 IMDb rating 6.0

A foreign journalist arrives on a small Pacific island 200 miles off the coast of South America. Once a leper colony, the island was later transformed into a prison and then, under U.N. mandate, made into an independent republic. Yet despite democratic structures, the inhabitants--who speak a strange dialect composed of Spanish and English--still obey the old prison rules. After sending back detailed accounts of the torture and repression seen everywhere, the journalist realizes that she has fallen into the trap created for her by the islanders: lacking natural resources, the island's main export is news.

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Cast

4 people

Raúl Ruiz Director · Franz Kafka Story

First release January 1, 1970 · Produced in Chile · Original title La colonia penal

Production

A

Alcaman

Production

Chile

Produced in

Languages

Original title

La colonia penal

Original language

Spanish

Spoken on screen

Spanish

Release dates

Chile · January 1, 1970

Theatrical

No release date listed for United States.

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