Film No. 32 (2021) May 4th. 10:30 AM Cinema 5 LUNA, Leederville.
"I would like to have been born a man. A man with a bad boy face." (A young Ines, auditioning as a beauty queen, answers her chaperone's question about what she would change in her life, if she could).
When Augusto Pinochet became ruler of Chile in 1973 he had assistance from many right wing forces, from the young to the elderly. These people were radicals who intimidated the democratic socialists in ways that would have made them criminals in other civilized societies. ARANA takes us on a journey into the lives of three such radicals from the 70's, paralleling their past with how they live now.
Ines (Mercedes Moran) is a respected business woman living a comfortable city life. Gerardo (Marcelo Alonso) is the radical who continues to seek justice, his justice, as the opening scenes suggest. Justo (Felipe Armas) is married to Ines and exists with the help of alcohol in their comfortable suburban house. We meet them after Gerardo is arrested for an act of brutality while driving the city streets.
Most of the rest of ARANA is told through the eyes of Ines as we transition between era's, learning why we need to get to know how this volatile trio of Pinochet foot soldiers came to be who they are. Ines, becomes more and more unlikeable with every scene. She has obviously thriven during the 17 year regime with little conscience and is wary of Gerardo's predicament. Her previous relationship with him was complicated. She wants no ripples.
Director Andres Wood is in control of this pot-boiler. He takes us between eras without any confusion and the young trio of Maria Valverdo (Ines), Pedro Fontaine (Gerardo) and Gabriel Urzua (Justo) deserve the same accolades as their older versions. Wood asks the question; who is still out there hiding, with secrets festering? ARANA, from all reports pricked the consciousness of Chilean natives after its release. It was fitting that it was Chile's choice as their Academy nomination in 2020. It was worthy of becoming one of the 5 nominees, sadly it wasn't. 10GUMS.
No comments:
Post a Comment