Un rey para la Patagonia

In 1971 the graphic and advertising artist Juan Fresán set out to film the story of Orélie Antoine de Tounens the delirious Frenchman who 100 years earlier had proclaimed himself King of Patagonia and Araucanía with his own constitution currency and ministers The film titled New France was left unfinished first due to lack of funds and then because its author had to go into exile If the story is familiar to many today this is because in the 80s Carlos Sorín made The Kings movie inspired by that frustrated shoot in which he had worked as a cinematographer In 2004 Fresán contacted Turturro to help him rescue the preserved film Fresán died in that same year but Turturro decided to retake the trace of that truncated film exhuming unpublished materials returning to their original settings and gathering testimonies to illuminate the two stories one within the other that make up this true story more strange and fascinating than any fiction