The International Writers Magazine: Review

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Machuca Directed byAndrés Wood Screenplay Roberto Brodsky- Mamoun Hassan • Guy Burton London’s Kings Road on the first sky blue spring day of the year isn’t really the most appropriate time or place to catch a film about the descent into anarchy and political repression. But Latin America’s latest cinematic offering, Machuca, was in town for a sneak preview, obliging us to give up thoughts of sun bathing in Hyde Park or a leisurely lunch at a nearby Lebanese café.

In addition, my companion was tempted by the prospect of it being Chilean, making a change from previous films coming out of the region, most notably those from Brazil and Argentina. As if that wasn’t enough, the film’s director, Andrés Wood, would be in the audience and anwer questions afterwards. Secretly though, I suspect she was also attracted by the offer of the Chilean wine which would be made available after the screening – and which she won’t drink any other.

We arrived just in time to catch Machuca’s opening credits, not realising until after that it is both the most successful film made in Chile and was recently nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language category earlier this year. Consequently I didn’t know what to expect of a film which is worth seeing now that it is out on selected release. However, I doubt it will get the recognition it deserves, not least because I can’t see it as a commercial draw in quite the same way as other Latin American films have been, most notably City of God and The Motorcycle Diaries.

Machuca is a drama about the friendship which begins between two 11-year old boys in Santiago on the eve of the military coup in 1973. The two boys come from opposite social spheres: Gonzalo is a shy, awkward child of the middle class while Pedro Machuca comes from the nearby shantytown. Gonzalo has an ambivalent relationship with his classmates and mother, being bullied by the former while tacitly included in the latter’s extra-marital affairs. He and Pedro first meet– and have to overcome their prejudices of the other – when the priest and principal of Gonzalo’s private school brings in some of the local poor boys to join the class. The film was apparently inspired by Wood’s own school -time experience when the priests at his school brought in around 40 shanty dwellers. He acknowledges this fact by a dedication in the credits.

Seeking to break down social barriers, the school’s principal forces the boys to sit together. Initially Gonzalo stands apart from Pedro, but following a session in which both boys are bullied, the two become friends. Waiting to be picked up from school, Pedro offers Gonzalo a lift home with his uncle and cousin in their truck. But before they do that Gonzalo joins them as they work the streets, selling flags and cigarettes at the right-wing and left-wing political rallies taking place in Santiago during that tumultuous time.

Machuca can’t be pigeon-holed as a coming-of-age film in the conventional American mould of films like Stand By Me. While there is some hope offered by the two boys’ friendship, that sentiment is tempered on two fronts: the of the impending military coup; the knowledge that the coup will advantage the upper and middle classes; and the bleak future faced by the poor and marginalised – and which continues until today. Indeed, it is left to one peripheral character, a drunk and absent father, to state that fact: ‘In fifteen years your friend here will be running his father’s company, while you will be cleaning the toilets.’ Even the passage during which Gonzalo develops a crush on Pedro’s cousin – who being a few years older is more politically astute than the two boys – is peripheral to the main theme; that is, the loss of control and security in both Gonzalo’s personal life and Chile in general.

This seems odd, especially given Wood’s comments in the discussion afterwards. Wood claimed that he wanted to make a film which went beyond the politics of the period. This was especially so since he wasn’t sure that a film about Chile’s political crisis in 1973 would be popularly received. Indeed, as I have learnt both before and after the film, Chilean society remains ambiguous on this score: the older generation remains divided, while the young have either little interest or knowledge of the period. As a result, Wood said he was keen to focus on the story and keep the politics peripheral to any discussion while working with the child actors. Yet one audience member found this contradictory: how could he make a film which was so obviously political and not find himself talking to the children about the period?

Nevertheless, I can see why Wood was so keen to strike a balance, especially while a substantial section of Chilean society continues to believe the coup was a good thing: an overtly pro-Allende film would have discouraged many cinema-goers from attending and reduced its commercial appeal. Also, it may well have switched off many viewers.

When asked who he drew his inspiration from in cinematographic terms, Wood highlighted Patricio Guzman’s La Batalla de Chile, an epic three-part documentary on the last year and a half of the Allende government and the coup. Watching Machuca those influences are very clear: from the street protests and demonstrations by both left and right (including everyone jumping against the middle class ‘mummies’, rich women banging their saucepans in protest and the menacing faces and helmets of the fascist-inspired Patria y Libertad youth marches) and the tangible feel of civil war lingering in the air to the public discussions over the rights and wrongs of the priests’ actions in the school and to the dark and gloomy room in which the family sits, watching the graining footage of the junta – including Pinochet – informing the population that Allende was dead and martial law imposed.

But for me, perhaps the most vivid image is of Gonzalo’s and Pedro’s classroom after the military has taken it over: the previously colourful walls stripped bare, save for a joint portrait of the junta and empty desks as one boy after another disappears – a reminder of the disappeared which persisted throughout the military period and over which many families have still not received justice.

© Guy Burton May 2005
Guy studies Latin American politics at London University’s Institute for the Study of the Americas. He has preiviously written for Liberator and Brazzil magazine.
guyburton@gmail.com

Machuca now showing in London and selected national cinemas

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