Set against the political instability in Chile in 1973, the Chilean movie Machuca centers on a friendship between two boys from opposite sides of social spectrum. While the movie shocks the audience by its realistic depiction of historical events and details, it strikes us even more with its unique perspective of an eleven-year-old, who is not able to understand the whole social situation but nevertheless experiences the political turmoil in a childlike way. For a foreign viewer like me, the movie’s theme of children caught in events out of their understanding resonates far beyond details of this single tragic moment in Chilean history.
As a gentile boy who lived in prestigious neighborhood and went to private school, the protagonist Gonzalo encountered the political unrest going on outside his ivory tower unintentionally. Joining his friend to pick up some extra money, Gonzalo sold flags in both the Nationalists and the Communists rallies. In a profound juxtaposition, Gonzalo jumped both when the crowd shouted “jump if you are not a commie” and “jump if you are not a mummy”, sharing the excitement of the crowd without having knowledge of their political intention. On the day of coup d'état, he witnessed two jets flying towards the Presidential Palace, unaware of the fact that this seminal event marked the end of Chilean democracy. While Gonzalo hadn’t developed his own political awareness, the restless Chilean politics manifested itself in his life, through ways not understandable to a child of his age. By having a young boy unbiasedly testifying the political agitation ongoing in Chile, Machuca avoids sending emotional and simplistic political messages, and successfully conveys a strong sense of presence of politics in common people’s lives.
The children are portrayed as simply children without the false glow of larger-than-life heroism. After the street fight between far-left and far-right militants, Machuca and Silvana slowly began to take defensive against Gonzalo. They sneaked back to their more comfortable existences and later on, finding himself involved in atrocity happening in shantytown, Gonzalo made the same decision, used his class status as free pass and abandoned his friend behind. The movie doesn’t try to romanticize the invulnerability of the children’s friendship. Quite the opposite, it reveals the children’s vulnerability facing disturbing layers of adults’ events, which are beyond their control and understanding as well.
There are strong hints that Machuca is a semi-autobiography. The film is dedicated to Father Gerardo Whelan, who from 1969 to 1973 was the director of Colegio Saint George, the private English-language school in Santiago that the film's director attended as a boy. The name of the film, Machuca, hints at the film director’s attempt to tell the story of a childhood friend, to relive his memory fragments of being situated in the middle of his country’s political storm, and to retrospectively understand history that was beyond his understanding as a young boy. The motif of children living in without being able to see through events happening around them lends more generality to the movie than representation of a certain historic trauma.
As a gentile boy who lived in prestigious neighborhood and went to private school, the protagonist Gonzalo encountered the political unrest going on outside his ivory tower unintentionally. Joining his friend to pick up some extra money, Gonzalo sold flags in both the Nationalists and the Communists rallies. In a profound juxtaposition, Gonzalo jumped both when the crowd shouted “jump if you are not a commie” and “jump if you are not a mummy”, sharing the excitement of the crowd without having knowledge of their political intention. On the day of coup d'état, he witnessed two jets flying towards the Presidential Palace, unaware of the fact that this seminal event marked the end of Chilean democracy. While Gonzalo hadn’t developed his own political awareness, the restless Chilean politics manifested itself in his life, through ways not understandable to a child of his age. By having a young boy unbiasedly testifying the political agitation ongoing in Chile, Machuca avoids sending emotional and simplistic political messages, and successfully conveys a strong sense of presence of politics in common people’s lives.
The children are portrayed as simply children without the false glow of larger-than-life heroism. After the street fight between far-left and far-right militants, Machuca and Silvana slowly began to take defensive against Gonzalo. They sneaked back to their more comfortable existences and later on, finding himself involved in atrocity happening in shantytown, Gonzalo made the same decision, used his class status as free pass and abandoned his friend behind. The movie doesn’t try to romanticize the invulnerability of the children’s friendship. Quite the opposite, it reveals the children’s vulnerability facing disturbing layers of adults’ events, which are beyond their control and understanding as well.
There are strong hints that Machuca is a semi-autobiography. The film is dedicated to Father Gerardo Whelan, who from 1969 to 1973 was the director of Colegio Saint George, the private English-language school in Santiago that the film's director attended as a boy. The name of the film, Machuca, hints at the film director’s attempt to tell the story of a childhood friend, to relive his memory fragments of being situated in the middle of his country’s political storm, and to retrospectively understand history that was beyond his understanding as a young boy. The motif of children living in without being able to see through events happening around them lends more generality to the movie than representation of a certain historic trauma.
那年阳光灿烂Machuca(2004)
又名：马丘卡 / 我的朋友马丘卡
上映日期：2004-02-24(瑞士) / 2004-05-21(戛纳电影节) / 2004-06-11(西班牙) / 2004-08-05(智利)片长：116分钟
主演：Matías Quer/Ariel Mateluna/玛鲁薇拉·马特利 Manuela Martelli/艾琳·库彭海姆 Aline Küppenheim/Ernesto Malbran/Tamara Acosta/弗朗西斯科·雷耶斯 Francisco Reyes/Alejandro Trejo/Maria Olga Matte/Gabriela Medina/Luis Dubó/Andrea García-Huidobro/Tiago Correa/Pablo Krögh/费德里科·路皮 Federico Luppi/Alfredo Ahumada/Alejandro Golz/Francisca Imboden/Catherine Mazoyer/Aldo Parodi/Carola Sotomayor/Hugo Vásquez
导演：安德烈斯·伍德 Andrés Wood编剧：Eliseo Altunaga/Roberto Brodsky/Mamoun Hassan/安德烈斯·伍德 Andrés Wood
