 A FilmExposed Film Review |
 Dir: Andrés Wood, 2004, Spain/Chile, 120 mins, Spanish with subtitles
Cast: Matías Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli, Aline Küppenheim, Ernesto Malbrán
In 1973 the Chilean army, backed by the US Government, staged a coup. The democratically elected President, Salavador Allende, was overthrown and General Augusto Pinochet took over. A good year for military dictators, not so good for anyone with lingering affection for democracy and equality. Of course there was more to the Revolution than Richard Nixon getting together with a few like-minded South Americans and deciding that Chile could really do with a bit of totalitarianism. There was the small matter of the Chilean people and this is the focus of Machuca, an utterly absorbing portrait of the year in which Chile imploded.
Machuca tells the story of the friendship between two eleven-year-old boys. Gonzalo Infante (Quer) and Pedro Machuca (Mateluna) are growing up in environments linked only by geography. Infante is a pug-nosed public schoolboy from an affluent Santiago family, the ragged Machuca a resident of an illegal shantytown. The boys are thrown together when Father McEnroe (Malbrán), headteacher at Infante's school, allows a handful of underprivileged children to join the elite school.
Well-balanced and understated, this is historical filmmaking at its best. Director Andrés Wood effortlessly blends the Machuca-Infante storyline with the larger picture of a country experiencing seismic upheaval. Machuca and Infante cannot remain friends into adulthood. Their shared experiences, a year in which they both began to come of age, are not enough to bridge a chasm of class and background. In Chile the Machucas lost, and will continue to lose. Father McEnroe's experiment tragically fails. In a school meeting the liberal elite, represented by Infante's father, are drowned out by the resentful bourgeois, championed by Infante's worthless mother, outraged that the 'commie' teacher is trying to teach their children 'things they don't need to know'. But Wood is not gauche enough to attempt any moralising. When the military take over and raid Machuca's shantytown, Infante is forced to proclaim he is not 'one of them', this isn't an issue of choice, it's an issue of birth. Infante returns to his middle-class bubble, the martial Government will probably be good for his family, not that they did too badly under the socialists.
This is an assured and thought-provoking film. Beautifully coloured, all dusty browns and light-drenched blues, and exquisitely shot, Machuca provides a real sense of place and time. A lively soundtrack and an attention to details of fashion and lifestyle immerses the viewer in 1970s Chile. The performances are excellent, the two leads especially so. Quer's Infante is wide-eyed and uncertain, tentatively watching events that he can just about begin to understand. Mateluna invests Machuca with a streetwise charm and the beginnings of a resentment that is sure to accompany him into his adult life.
This is an enchanting film, thematically rich and quietly intelligent. Touching without veering into sentimentality, angry without being overly political, most of all Machuca works as a story. First-class. |
