2004, Chile, Dir: Andrés Wood
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A look at Chilean society during the end of the Allende era told trough the eyes of two kids from opposite social background. Well made but perhaps a bit slow and melodramatic, it is worth seeing if you are interested in journey through a different time and culture.
I always had a strange attraction for Chile – the local Communists sheltered quite few political refugees in northern Italy, and there were many small town festivals organized in their honour. That’s when the band Inti Illimani became quite well known – I can’t think of a band that today sounds more hopelessly irrelevant.
Anyway, I was quite curious about the movie. It tells the rich-kid-befriends-poor-kid story, but in a Chilean revolutionary setting. I was looking forward to some great ambient shots (I hear Chile has some stunning scenery), but the director seems to like filling the scene with people – either close ups of the rich kid, or indoor shots with only a few people, or a few crowd scenes (always tense). The story is told from the rich kid’s point of view – he’s always there in every scene, in the school, in the shanty town, outside the door where his mother is having sex with her lover, etc.
There is a lot of dualism in the movie – rich v. poor, crowds v. people alone, communists v. fascists, the two friends v. the school bullies, mum v. dad, etc. There is no much political analysis, but it is quite clear the director sides with the poor people, as all the rich ones are either morally bankrupt or well meaninng but ineffective. The only hero in the movie is the priest, whom is obviously based on a real character from the director youth, judging by the dedication in the credits at the end.
The movie starts quite slow and gets slower and slower by the end, so slow there is no room for surprises – every time a new scene starts you pretty much know how it is going to end. That, paired to the slightly melodramatic tone and the excessive focus on people combine to make it a pleasant but by no means unmissable film. Most comments in IMDb rave about the movie, so either I have missed something or the people who wrote them need to go out more often.
