Machuca, my friend
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Machuca, my friend |
| Original title | Machuca |
| Country of production | Chile |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 116 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andrés Wood |
| script |
Eliseo Altunaga , Andrés Wood |
| production |
Mamoun Hassan , Gerardo Herrero , Andrés Wood |
| music |
Miguel Miranda , José Miguel Tobar |
| camera | Miguel Ioann Littin Menz |
| cut | Fernando Pardo |
| occupation | |
| |
Machuca, mein Freund is a Chilean film by Andrés Wood from 2004 , which depicts the friendship between two children from different social classes. The film takes place immediately before and during Augusto Pinochet's coup against Salvador Allende .
action
In Chile in the early 1970s, resentment spreads among the poorer sections of the population because of the prevailing circumstances. Socialist ideas are becoming popular. In the Latin American Church, the liberation theology is being developed, which in conflict with the Vatican's view of a concrete entry of the clergy for improvements not only in the afterlife.
Against this background, the headmaster Father McEnroe allows children from the slums to be exempted from school fees for the first time at the elite Saint Patrick school for boys. Despite initial difficulties, a deep friendship develops between Gonzalo Infante, a spoiled upper-class child, and Pedro Machuca, who comes from an extremely poor and broken family. Both can look into the other's world. The friendship seems to be strong despite ongoing attempts to negatively influence both social poles.
As in school, however, the conflict between the haves and the destitute comes to a head throughout the country. At the height of the coup , Augusto Pinochet took power and the country sank into a military dictatorship within a very short time. In the school too, the padres are deposed who demonstrate the absence of Christian ideas in a defiant gesture. Demonstrations of sympathy on the part of the students are severely punished.
But the friendship only finally breaks when Gonzalo witnesses the brutal evacuation of the slum by the military. A good friend is shot while trying to protect her father from the abuse by the soldiers and Infante denies any relationship with the slum dwellers when he is threatened with arrest. While the dark fate of the poor population remains unsettled, Infante returns to the world of the preferred upper class.
Reviews
“The film, staged with care, patience and humor, consistently maintains the childlike perspective that visually stands for Allende's dream of social equality. The break in reality is all the more drastic. "
Awards
The film was voted Most Popular International Film by the Vancouver International Film Festival 2004.
background
The film is strongly autobiographical. Andrés Wood himself attended the elite Saint George's College in Santiago de Chile . He dedicated his work in the credits to the headmaster at the time, Father Gerardo Whelan, who was recalled when the school was placed under the military after the coup.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Machuca, my friend. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 21, 2017 .
- ^ VIFF: 23rd Vancouver International Film Festival breaks records ( memento of October 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), as of March 29, 2009
Web links
- Machuca in the Internet Movie Database (English)