Machuca

I just watched this movie with a couple of friends and it was amazingly good. I would recommend it without any reservations. Its one of those heartbreakingly bittersweet, intelligent, beautiful movies that sticks with you for a long time after you see it. I won't tell you too much about it because you should see it! But I will say that its about friendship across class divisions in Chile in the 1970's, during the transition period from Allende to Pinochet. One of my favorite things in the movie was a huge wall that the kids would ride their bikes by on the way to school. First, a sign was painted on the wall saying "No to civil war." The next time you see the wall, the "no" has been erased. And when you see the wall after Pinochet is in power, everything has been painted over and the wall is gray and blank. To me this is a perfect picture of that period in Chilean history: conflict, more conflict, and finally, under Pinochet, a haunting oblivion. The Pinochet military officers, having killed off the boys' (Jesuit) headmaster, tell them "We do not think of these things any longer." How terrifying that philosophy is.

Like I've said before, its bizarre to me to think that just 15 years ago Chile was ruled by a military government infamous for its human rights abuses. I keep trying to stretch my mind around that idea.