Miguel Littin

Who is Miguel Littin?

Miguel Ernesto Littín Cucumides is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and novelist. He was born to a Palestinian father, Hernán Littin and a Greek mother, Cristina Cucumides.

Miguel Littín directed the most popular Chilean film of all time, El Chacal de Nahueltoro becoming a figure of the New Latin American Cinema.

Littín was exiled in México shortly after Augusto Pinochet came to power in a military coup, which ousted the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende, on September 11, 1973. His 1973 film The Promised Land was entered into the Cannes Film Festival, New York film festival and the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.

In México he directed several films:

Letters from Marusia, based on a miners strike in Chile. Letters from Marusia was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

El Recurso del Método based on Alejo Carpentier's novel El Recurso del método; a co-production with Mexico, France and Cuba.

The Widow of Montiel, with Geraldine Chaplin, based on a Gabriel García Márquez short story.

Then he went to Nicaragua to make Alsino and the Condor, based on the novel Alsino by Pedro Prado.