Chile '76 (2022)
Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to.
- Manuela Martelli
- Gwenn Joyaux
- Waldo Salgado
- María José Concha
- Carolina Schilling
- Sebastián Videla
- Alejandra Moffat
- Manuela Martelli
Rating: 7.071/10 by 42 users
Alternative Title:
Chile ’76 - US
Chili 1976 - FR
1976 - GB
Country:
Argentina
Chile
Qatar
United States of America
Language:
English
Español
Runtime: 01 hour 36 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $281,424
Plot Keyword: dictatorship, family relationships, chile, woman director
Aline Küppenheim turns in quite an impressive performance here as the middle class woman, married to a doctor, who finds herself embroiled in some clandestine activities at the height of the Pinochet administration in Chile. All she actually wants to do is get their beach house repainted, but when the local priest (Hugo Medina) approaches "Carmen" and asks her to take care of an injured young man, she finds herself exposed to quite a few dangers as she discovers "Elías" (Nicolás Sepúlveda) has a bullet hole in him and is on the run with the police looking for him. Over the next ninety minutes we get quite a sense of the peril in which she has to live; of her nervously sneaking about watching her own every move; telling lies and swapping buses when she travelled - all more akin to something from a John Le Carré novel rather than life in a supposedly civilised 1970s nation. What adds to the effectiveness of this drama is the fact that aside from some television actuality, we see little of the actual oppressiveness of the regime. It's the changes in her behaviour and her attitude to the young "Elías" that subtly embeds the sense of menace throughout the film. I didn't love the soundtrack and some might not like the inconclusiveness of the denouement, but I found that - like life in this turmoil-ridden country itself, made it all the more potent. Worth a watch.
