 Machuca
Starring:
Ariel Mateluna and Matias Quer
Directed by: Andres Wood
Spanish w/English
Subtitles
Bluntly
speaking? Machuca is a remarkable and new-look at a military coup.
The film is based on the real civil war turmoil in Chile back in 1973. Its backdrop
is the fear and horror of an armed polital struggle, with the fore front story
, here, being the humanity of the children behind these struggles; what the innocent
go through and how they have their own "polital" struggles to bare.
Story
goes…it's 1973 and Chile is about to face an upheaval of its democracy. But
to ten-year-old Gonzalo (Matias Quer), he's more concerned with his upper-class
private school's new policy of free education for the poorer - other-side-of-the-tracks
- kids. Well, not concerned, but in his small world this introduction of a foreign
element is - seems - monumental. Gonzalo,
who "has it all," and is quite open-minded for the times, ultimately
befriends Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna), a boy that lives in a shanty shack.
Even while Gonzalo's more snobby friends look upon Pedro the pauper as swill,
Gonzalo sees a friend - regardless of Pedro's place in life. The
two try to share boyhood, and frolic about, as the town around them is growing
more and more volatile, heading towards the inevitable uprising their parents
await. The
loss of Democracy is looming. But while a country heads towards dictatorship,
Pedro and Gonzalo experience their first kisses with a tough local girl, fight
off bullies, learn alcohol's effects, while being continually reminded they are
of different worlds by their "well- meaning" parents and guardians.
The elders, who themselves, are in all sorts of clashing quietly stages of regime
change. Of
course from the boys' rather innocent point of view they, not only don't see what
all the fuss is about (financially), and don't understand the adult dynamics completely,
they are even naive enough to sell party flags, as a after-school job, to both
sides of the political struggle. The severity of the marches and the people's
chants seem to be lost on them - though underneath, the two are very aware something
is coming. What
makes Machuca so special is its heart; its truth. Machuca has a different
way of looking at a country's re-shaping - true - but it's the boys' and their
attempts at letting their worlds commingle that truly makes this tale grand. Enjoy Snack
recommendation: Coca Cola and Tums
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