The Red Hangar

(Hangar Rojo)

Juan Pablo Sallato / Argentina, Chile, Italy / 2026 / 83 min
The Red Hangar_Poster_Landscape_V2 The Red Hangar The Red Hangar
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  • Berlin International Film Festival

  • Miami International Film Festival

  • Los Angeles Latino Film Festival

  • Malaga Film Festival

    Special Critics Jury Award, Audience Award, Best Actor, Best Editing

  • Guadalajara Int'l Film Festival

    Best Actor, Best Script, Best Director, Best Iberoamerican Feature, Best Cinematography

  • Seattle International Film Festival

    Special Jury Mention – Best Director

  • Uruguay International Film Festival

    Best Actor
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Synopsis

Spanish with English subtitles

With Nicolás Zárate, Boris Quercia, Marcial Tagle, Catalina Stuardo, Aron Hernández, Francisco Carrasco, Juan Cano

On Monday, September 10, 1973, in Chile, Captain Jorge Silva—head of logistics at an Air Force training school—begins his day unaware of the history-changing events unfolding in the capital. When the military coup erupts the following morning, Silva receives an order that will change everything: transform one of the school’s aviation hangars into a detention and torture center.

Believing the terror will be brief, he follows orders while trying to remain on the sidelines. The situation unravels with the arrival of a higher-ranking officer wielding unchecked authority—a man with whom Silva has unfinished business after intervening three years earlier to prevent an attack on President Salvador Allende. Trained to obey, Silva soon discovers that the new orders demand more than discipline—they demand participation. He must confront not only his past, but also his deepest convictions.

The Red Hangar, the debut feature by Juan Pablo Sallato, based on true events, reconstructs the tense hours following Chile’s 1973 coup d’état with urgency and precision, from a perspective rarely explored: the inner workings of the armed forces. The Winner of the Audience, Critics’ Jury, and Best Actor awards at the 2026 Malaga Film Festival is a gripping moral drama—and a chilling warning for the present—about obedience, loyalty, and personal responsibility in the face of terror.

– Hebe Tabachnik, Seattle International Film Festival

Related Subjects
About the Director
Juan Pablo Sallato is a Chilean director, producer, and screenwriter, and co-founder of Villano Producciones. He directed Red Eyes (2010), one of the most-watched documentaries in Chilean cinema, and the series Libre (2021, Journalism Excellence Award), The Culture of Sex (2015), and Addicted to the Horn (2013, Altazor Award for Best Direction).

Available for Q&As, Masterclasses, and workshops upon request, in English or Spanish.
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He also produced dramas such as Zamudio: Lost in the Night (2015) and The Hunt (2018–2022). The Red Hangar (2026), selected at Berlinale Perspectives, is his first fiction feature.

Press

“An intimate and understated approach. This is reflected both in the black-and-white cinematography (used in an entirely justifiable way) and in the restrained, constantly surprising performance by Nicolás Zárate."” – Sergio Burstein, Los Angeles Times

“A tightly controlled 1970s Chilean thriller [that] proves powerfully timely...Sallato’s achievement has been all the greater in eschewing demonstrativeness for a masterfully sustained exercise in oblique realism.” – Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

“A fascinating and disconcerting morality tale about a man who believes that violence is necessary, and how obedience can cause irreversible consequences.” – Matthew Joseph Jenner, INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY Film

“The themes and human challenges it explores feel very timely.” – Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter

“A relentless, devastating yet insightful look at this one-man war, which unfolds amid all manner of adversity.” – Diego Batlle, Otroscines

“Examines the moment when an individual decides whether to integrate into the system or break away.” – Santiago Echeverría, EscribiendoCine

“Sallato’s black-and-white drama is at once impressionistic and very precise; this, together with its concise running time, makes for a taut, intense portrayal of one man’s moral and existential crisis, unfolding in what feels close to real time.” – Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

“A powerful debut feature about individual conscience during Pinochet's coup.” – Elsa Fernández-Santos, El País

“The drama uncovers little-known events surrounding the overthrow of President Salvador Allende. It sheds light on a long-suppressed chapter of history, following Air Force officers and enlisted soldiers who opposed the coup and faced brutal punishment from their own institution.” – Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety

“A gripping portrait of a courageous Air Force captain forced to draw the line during Chile’s military coup...While the story, taken from reality, contains plenty of its own inherent tension, director Juan Pablo Sallato and screenwriter Luis Emilio Guzman pare the tale down to its essentials to ratchet up the atmosphere of uneasiness and incipient horror. Like the countdown to a bomb exploding.” – Deborah Young, The Film Verdict

“It's a very well-told film about a significant moment. It has a strong rhythm, tension, and, above all, humanity.” – Álvaro García-Baquero, 35 MILÍMETROS

“The special jury award for best direction goes to The Red Hangar. Sallato’s vision of a conflicted Air Force Captain is tense and elegiac and puts you smack in the middle of the harrowing events of the 1973 coup d'état in Chile.” – Jury Statement, Seattle International Film Festival

Notes on the Film

“The Red Hangar is a film about disobedience. It explores a man shaped by military discipline, confronted with the exact moment when orders become crimes.

As the country collapses under the weight of the military coup, we observe that founding moment of horror, when the repressive apparatus has yet to take shape. The camera moves through corridors where what remains unspoken echoes louder than the screams. There are no heroes — only men trapped between the logic of power and the weight of guilt, and a spectator invited to look into that mirror and ask: which role would I play in such a situation?

A restrained thriller, a look from within the military world, where tension lies not in the coup itself, but in the seconds before deciding whether to take part. The Red Hangar looks back at that past not only to understand it, but to recognize in it the shadows that still live within us. Amid horror, the film searches for that small trace of humanity that sometimes survives even in the darkest places.

— Juan Pablo Sallato, director

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