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The dreamer

"The Dreamer" follows the life of Bonifacio, a homeless man who has isolated himself on a rural road, struggling with his loneliness. Accompanied only by Arturo, a mannequin. Bonifacio will face an inevitable reality: Death, which comes to claim him. On his last day, Bonifacio must decide whether to surrender to his fate or keep holding on to the life he has left.

  • Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos
    Director
  • Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos
    Writer
  • Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos
    Producer
  • Juan Carlos Cubillos
    Key Cast
    "Bonifacio / The death of Bonifacio"
  • Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos
    Editing
  • Karen Jun
    Editing
  • Gerardo Quezada
    sound recordist
  • Ignacio Orella
    assistant director
  • karen Jun
    Graphic design, VFX artist and colorist
  • Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos
    DOP
  • Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos
    Art director
  • Pedro Siliente
    Composer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    El soñador
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Fantasy, Existentialism
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes 48 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 28, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    322 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Chile
  • Country of Filming:
    Chile
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Black Magic Digital Camera
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Benjamín Ignacio Cubillos

Benjamin Ignacio Cubillos Peñailillo, born on June 4, 2003, is a 21-year-old emerging
filmmaker from Santiago, Chile. Currently a film student on a temporary break from his
studies at Universidad del Desarrollo, he paused his academic journey to focus on his
mental health. During this time, Benjamin has been passionately building his production
company, Natural Studio, which aims to specialize in a wide range of audiovisual content
including advertising, music videos, short films, feature films, stop motion, and
documentaries.
With three music videos in post-production, Benjamin has also embarked on his first
independent short film project, "El Soñador," marking a significant departure from his
previous work confined to university guidelines. In this project, he embraced creative
freedom, exploring narrative and character development through actions rather than
dialogue. Although he has previously worked on other short films, "El Soñador" stands as his
first film where he fully exercised his creative vision.
Benjamin's work reflects a deep commitment to pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and
he continues to develop his craft as he navigates the film industry with a fresh and
experimental approach.

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Director Statement

Director's Inspiration

The inspiration for "The Dreamer" came to me after a family trip to southern Chile. On the return journey to Santiago, alone on a bus for six hours along the highway, a powerful image appeared in my mind: a man crawling on the ground, searching for a sandwich. It had no context or story at first, just a striking image. For the previous four months, I had experienced a creative drought like never before, and that image reignited my imagination.

During that bus ride, I started to break down the action, slowly transforming it into a sequence. From there, I began building the world of Bonifacio, a homeless man suffering from mental illness, addiction, and overwhelming loneliness. What started as a simple image deepened into a broader representation of the human struggle—the fight against death, abandonment, and isolation.

Each of us, in some way, could become Bonifacio. We all face our own battles, and there's always something or someone that we cling to in order to survive, to avoid falling into despair. For Bonifacio, that connection is Arturo, a mannequin that represents his only tie to life. Arturo embodies that object or person that, for each individual, symbolizes what keeps us grounded. For some, it may be money, a house, or a car; for others, family, a partner, or friends. But for Bonifacio, it’s simply a mannequin that keeps him going.

The intention behind "The Dreamer" is to showcase how loneliness and abandonment can lead to deep human decay. Personally, I wanted to reflect some of my own feelings of solitude, but also depict human degradation from a nearly theatrical perspective. This is not a realistic portrait of a homeless person’s life; it is my interpretation of his internal struggle. While I used some clichés to structure the story, I aimed to combine the traditional with experimental elements and visual effects, resulting in a fresh take on this deeply human theme.
Visual Style

As both director and director of photography for "The Dreamer," my creative process went through several phases in terms of visual elements and style. Initially, I wanted to play with Hitchcock-style zoom effects, but I realized they weren't justified and didn’t contribute to the theme. So, I began to break down the visual approach, focusing on what elements would support the narrative and the acting.

I decided to rely on fixed and static shots, emphasizing solidity, minimalism, and stillness in a chaotic internal world filled with loneliness and abandonment. I wanted to highlight the actions, dialogues, and characters, avoiding overly innovative or dynamic shots that might overwhelm the viewer. The acting itself is intense, and the themes are exhausting, sad, and realistic, reflecting a shameful aspect of humanity. I wanted these elements to speak for themselves.

As a result, I started to strip down the technical script I had originally created, leaving behind only the structural skeleton that gave the short film a visual naturalness. I played with different shot scales, moving from wide shots to close-ups, from medium shots to American shots. I also used the cloning effect in a simple but effective way.

One of the visual elements I had in mind but wasn’t able to fully explore on the day of filming was the tatami shot. I wanted to show how Bonifacio’s life unfolds from the ground level. Although I shot a few tatami shots as the camera operator, I ultimately decided to use a normal angle to establish the viewer's perspective more literally. The idea was to position the viewer as an actual spectator of Bonifacio's life. When we walk the streets and see homeless people, we stand above them, looking down while they live on the ground. I wanted to play with that height difference to make the audience feel like they are standing while Bonifacio lives his life from the ground.

Another important element was the soundtrack. The story is inspired by Santiago, Chile, but I didn’t want it to have a typical Chilean aesthetic. I aimed to create my own style, blending Chilean vocabulary, accent, and idioms with the elegance of classical music to transform the story and make it universal. While Bonifacio is a Chilean homeless man, he could represent any homeless person anywhere in the world.