Born in Mérida, Venezuela, in 1967, Lorenzo Vigas studied in the United States and made documentaries and shorts before his first feature, Elephant Graveyard (2010). His second, From Afar (Desde allá, 2015), the story of a middle-aged dental technician who pays teenage boys to undress and a young gang member who becomes his obsession, won the Golden Lion at Venice, the first Latin American film to take the prize. He followed with The Box (La caja, 2021).