"The King of White Gold" is not referring to any metal, but sheep.
As I was filming The Settlers, I realized that the Western was initially a propaganda genre that became a genre to enterain, so the idea was to dive into the Western, appropriate it, and use it to make a critical reflection on the role of cinema.
— Felipe Gàlvez (Cineaste Magazine)
I wanted to create multiple heroes. At the beginning, we’re thinking MacLennan’s the hero. Then we think Segundo is the hero because he’s going to kill Bill. Maybe it’s the Argentinians or Moreno. Then there’s Colonel Martin. Or, at the end, maybe it’s going to be Vicuña. I was interested in building these ideas of heroes and destroying them. He kills Bill, so we think that he’s the hero, but then you see that Martin rapes McClellan. We see that when you have this dynamic of all of these men that are trying to outdo each other to see who’s the hero. The idea is having each of their definitions of the hero kill the other. And we end with Rosa’s image, which is resilient. She’s the only one who’s able to say no and manifest that she’s not alright.
— Felipe Gálvez (Slant Magazine/i>)
Synopsis: Chile, early 20th century. José Menéndez, a wealthy landowner, hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia.