By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Luis R. Vera
Starring: Adela Secall | Katty Kowaleczko | Tiago Correa
Country: chile
Year: 2007
Running time: 102
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808267/
Bruce says: “It’s Patriot’s Day in Chile and the meaning of the occasion varies greatly person to person. Ostensibly Macarena’s (Adela Secall) parents have gathered the family to their country home to honor the approaching engagement of their daughter. Her boyfriend Álvaro’s (Tiago Correa) parents are in attendance as are an assortment of both their cousins, siblings, aunts and uncles. The plot is very dense – as it happens some of the relatives on both sides have known each other during their ‘political’ years. After smoking pot on the lawn, snorting coke in the bedrooms and bouts of incessant drinking, family grudges and feelings about Chile slowly emerge, then suddenly explode.
“Chile has a confused and checkered history starting with Allende, followed by Pinocet and now settling into democracy. The younger generation knows little about what happened during the Pinocet years and very little about which side their parents supported. No one is quite sure who were the informers, the torturers and the imprisoned. As in neighboring Argentina and Peru, the young people in Chile are now confronted with a very complicated ethical problem. In the director’s words, ‘Memory is needed. For years there has been silence about torture and other crimes and silence about silence itself.’ Many are content with the current status quo. As one character puts it, ‘Despite the loss of both our parties, we have done well for our country.’
“By the end of the film, most of the family is not speaking to one another. Macarena discovers how her parents met and why they have never discussed their courtship. The pending engagement is no longer a remote possibility once Álvaro states his preference to let sleeping dogs lie. Macarena is last seen on the back of a motorcycle belonging to the cousin of her former fiancé. One way to deal with the past is to simply walk away from it. 3.5 cats
“FIESTAPATRIA screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival”