On his way home from work, Jorge (Daniel Candia, HIDDEN IN THE WOODS), lone caretaker for forest reserve outside the city, is harassed by a group of teenage thugs lead by older thief Kalule (Daniel Antivilo, VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN) who steals his diabetes testing kit. When his son Jorgito (Ariel Mateluna, THE DANCER AND THE THIEF) is shot trying to buy the kit back from Kalule, Jorge gets there just in time to see Kalule shoot himself and claim self-defense to the police. His own testimony fails to sway the court who only sentence Kalule to 540 days under a plea bargain. Two years later, the recently freed Kalule starts harassing Jorgito, his mother Marta (Alejandra Yañez) - now divorced from Jorge - and sister Nicole (Jennifer Salas). The police prove ineffectual in protecting them and the district attorney slow to issue a restraining order or revoke parole even after the family has provided evidence of the harassment. When Kalule assaults Nicole, the soft-spoken Jorge (emboldened after a tense encounter with an abusive poacher) decides to take matters into his own hands. Armed with his work rifle, he initiates his own campaign of terror against Kalule but soon discovers that it takes more than firepower TO KILL A MAN.

Although based on a true Chilean case, TO KILL A MAN eschews sensationalism in favor of an examination of the effect of vigilante justice on someone who is not an action movie hero. Scenes that happen outside of Jorge's perspective in the first half are filmed in a detached fashion with the characters and their aggressive acts physically dwarfed by the landscape in the framing of cinematographer Inti Briones (THE LONELIEST PLANET). In the latter half of the film, Jorge both shares and is subject to that perspective: cut off to the point that he is denied righteous outrage at the authorities leaping to investigate Kalule's disappearance after being so slow to protect his family, and all but physical release in his encounter with a hooker. He is also physically diminished by the camera amidst his travails in the park landscape that he knows so well as he wrestles with his conscience and tries to do the right thing. In a film where performances are not foregrounded, Candia and Antivilo are excellent as, respectively, a mild-mannered father who perceives personal failure in everything from his own physical health to the institutional inability or unwillingness to exact justice and a villain who is not so much cunning as reckless and craven. Definitely not for DEATH WISH fans.