ALEJANDRO FERNANDEZ

Screenwriter and Filmmaker, he studied at the School of Journalism of the University of Chile. After graduating, he won a scholarship to study for six months in New York, where he got a job at the EFE agency, which allows him to live in the United States until 2007. Since 2003 he has directed several short films that go around the international circuit, highlighting WHAT THE RAIN BRINGS (2007), winner of the Best Latin American Short Film Award from the Ibero-American Short Film Festival and selected for the official competition of nearly 30 competitions. The script for his first feature film, HUACHO, won the Sundance / NHK award and the Groupama Gan pour le Cinema, among other recognitions. HUACHO, was premiered at the Critics' Week of the Cannes Festival 2009, and has been part of the official selection of various festivals.

Director’s statement

“MY FRIEND ALEXIS is a film that goes far beyond football and the phenomenon of Alexis Sánchez. This is the story of a boy and his father, of a family that struggles to get ahead in a country that hardly gives it opportunities. Soccer is passion and joy, but it is also a source of ambitions for many parents who see in their children the possibility of fulfilling the dreams that were denied them, a rope to hold onto to get out of poverty. This pressure that overwhelms many boys is the dramatic center of a story in which love will succeed in conquering what ambition threatens, a film in which light, color, music and joy triumph, to leave us a teaching of respect and love, the indispensable value of a father's affection.

A mix of comedy and drama, MY FRIEND ALEXIS is a film that owes its charm to the work of dozens of children who love football and who transmit what is rarely found on a screen: the joy and authentic passion of someone who follows his dreams.”