All Is Permitted

NOIRISH AND BLACKLY HUMOROUS, WRITER-DIRECTOR BENJAMÍN NAISHTAT’S third feature, , brilliantly tracks the decisions of one more or less ordinary Argentine, Claudio (Darío Grandinetti), that lead to an extraordinary situation, as a way of observing an entire culture’s descent into perdition. The figure who emerges halfway through as Claudio’s antagonist, a Chilean “celebrity detective” named Sinclair, is played by the great Chilean actor Alfredo Castro—whose sheer presence signals a journey into the shadow side of Latin America’s late-20th-century upheavals. had its world premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is where I met with Castro to discuss his work. Now in his sixties, Castro was already a respected veteran in Chilean theater, film, and television when he found international recognition in a string of movies for director Pablo Larraín, beginning with in 2008 and continuing with (2010), (2012), (2015), and (2016). He also received accolades for his starring role in Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’s (2015).