This work consists of a reflection on the process of constructing visual rhetorics that operate when constructing a film. For this purpose an analysis exercise was made of the Chilean film “El Cautiverio Feliz” (“The Happy Captivity”) (1998) by Cristián Sánchez, a work based on the book with the same name written in 1670 by Francisco Núñez de Pineda. This is a paradigmatic text within Chilean literature, as it is an important testimonial and reflective story, which contributed to the emergence of the national Creole identity. In this analysis we adopt a semiotic model developed by Roland Barthes, who concerns himself with revealing the implicit ideology in iconic messages, by applying the concepts of denotation and connotation. Finally, the rhetoric operations that Sánchez uses in his film are presented.