A Chilean director and screenwriter, he studied at the University of Paris and then at the Louis Lumière Film School. In 1984 he returned to Chile and directed a documentary about the punk movement in his homeland, The Pacifist Warriors (Los Guerreros Pacifistas). He directed his first feature-length film Children of the Cold War (Hijos de la Guerra Fría) in 1986, receiving an Interfilm award for it in Berlin. This was followed by the less successful Sussi (1987), and then Caluga o Menta (1990), the drama Amnesia (1994), the medium-length Pasión Gitana (1997) and I Dream about You (Tuve un Sueño contigo, 1999). His latest films are the dramas El Leyton (2002), B-Happy (2003), and the comedies Lokas (2008), Have You Seen Lupita? (¿Alguien ha visto a Lupita?, 2012).