Machuca (15)

Dir. Andres Wood, 2004, Chile/Spain/UK/France, 121 min, subtitles

Cast: Matias Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli

Chilean director Andres Wood's latest film arrives on these shores with a string of awards and a something of a reputation. A lovingly crafted, achingly nostalgic look at the growing pains of two teenage boys in Santiago in 1973, the film is set against the last tumultuous days of Salvador Allende's socialist government and the bloody military coup that installed Pinochet's brutal regime of disappearances, torture and political oppression.

There have been various documentaries made by ex-patriot Chilean filmmakers on the subject (Patricio Guzman's The Battle Of Chile perhaps the most notable), but Wood's highly accomplished feature bears the distinction of being the first fiction film to examine that turbulent and traumatic time, by a director who lived through the dictatorship. The masterstroke of the film is to show these dramatic events through the eyes of two children from either side of the political and social divide. We see only what they see, creating a non-judgemental and fragmented view of a national tragedy.

Inspired by events from the director's own youth, the film centres around an ambitious social experiment in which a private boy's school allows a group of kids from the nearby shantytowns to study alongside the privileged sons of Chile's middle classes. It is here that the pasty and freckled Gonzalo, a lonely and shy mother's boy, meets the tough and streetwise Machuca, a dark-skinned Andean kid from the Santiago slums. They soon become fast friends, uniting against the bullies that torment Gonzalo for being shy and Machuca for being poor. Both boys are in need of a friend and refuge from unhappy home lives: Gonzalo's beloved mother is conducting an affair with an older man, while Machuca's home life is a constant struggle against grinding poverty. The boys are fascinated by each other's respective worlds and, through their eyes we see the deep divisions that split their society.

1970's Santiago is sensually evoked in a grimy colour palette of greens and chocolate browns, while the costume and hairstyles feel as authentically realised as the period billboards and advertisements. Wood and his production designers have a real eye for detail, and some of the most effective moments in the film are the subtle markers of the imminent violent coup; such as the ever changing graffiti, finally erased by the military, or the chilling sight of fighter jets cutting across the sky on their way to attack the presidential palace.

However, the ferment on the streets is always a backdrop for the story of the two boys' friendship, and the enthusiasm and wonder of their youthful self discovery. The film includes three very touching set pieces (the demonstrations scene, the party scene, and the 'condensed milk' scene.) that are as sharply nostalgic and beautifully played as any evocation of that excruciating period between childhood and adolescence. That Gonzalo and Machuca's friendship will not survive is as inevitable as the country's slide into dictatorship, and the film's final scenes in which the shanty towns are crushed, are heartbreakingly effective.

The film was a phenomenon when it was released in Chile last year and has since become one of that country's most commercially successful, causing much heated debate and unleashing a cauldron of emotion in a country that is only beginning to take stock of a dark period in its recent history. A magnificent and melancholy masterpiece, this film deserves your attention.