BAD INFLUENCE
Mala junta
Chile, 2016
Mapudungun and Spanish with English subtitles | 89 min
Director: Claudia Huaiquimilla

Sunday, Aug 27
9:15 PM | The Cinematheque
Friday, Sep 1
7:15 PM | The Cinematheque

Using as a backdrop the ongoing violent conflict between Chile’s Indigenous Mapuche communities and the forces who want to strip them of their lands, Claudia Huaiquimilla’s urgent and wrenching first feature film focuses on the burgeoning friendship between two teenagers. Rebellious Tano is sent from the city of Santiago to the small mountain community of Wallmapu under the care of his father, Javier, after he is arrested for his participation in a violent robbery. There he befriends Cheo, a shy Mapuche boy, who is bullied at school. Their friendship deepens as everything explodes around them following the death of an influential community leader.

“Huaiquimilla, along with co-writer Pablo Greene, brilliantly weaves together themes both grand and intimate—a rich human tapestry played against an urgent social and environmental crisis.” SIFF

Para su primer largometraje, la realizadora Claudia Huaiquimilla usa como trasfondo el continuo conflicto entre las comunidades mapuches de Chile y las fuerzas que quieren desalojarlas de sus tierras para narrar esta historia sobre la amistad entre dos adolescentes. Tano es enviado a la pequeña comunidad montañosa de Wallmapu bajo el cuidado de su padre tras ser arrestado por su participación en un robo violento. Allí se hace amigo de Cheo, un joven Mapuche víctima de hostigamiento en la escuela. Su amistad crece a la vez que la comunidad a su alrededor entra en punto de ebullición tras la muerte de un influyente líder mapuche.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Producers: Pablo Greene Flaten, Rebeca Gutiérrez Campos, Eduardo Villalobos Pino
Screenwriters: Claudia Huaiquimilla, Pablo Greene
Cinematographer: Matías Illanes”
Editor: Valeria Hernández
Music: Miranda y Tobar
Cast: Andrew Bargsted, Eliseo Fernández, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Francisca Gavilán, Ariel Mateluna, Sebastián Ayala

Claudia Huaiquimilla (Mariquina, Chile, 1987) is a Mapuche director and writer. She studied Audiovisual Direction at the Catholic University of Chile. Her short film San Juan, la noche más larga (2012) won a Special Jury Mention at Clermont-Ferrand. Mala junta (2016), her feature debut, won the Audience Award at the Toulouse Cinélatino Film Festival.

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