Special Presentation: MACHUCA

Friday, Sept 15 at 6:00 PM
The Cinematheque

Aline Küppenheim in attendance

Director: Andrés Wood
Chile | 2004 | Spanish with English subtitles | 121 min

Sliding Scale Tickets:
$13 / $15 / $18 / $21

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Twenty years ago Machuca won the People’s Choice Award for Most Popular International Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. We are thrilled to screen Machuca once again with actress Aline Küppenheim in attendance. Machuca also stars Manuela Martelli who is the director of our Closing Night Film, Chile ’76.

Chile, 1973. Gonzalo Infante and Pedro Machuca are two eleven-year-old boys living in the capital city of Santiago. Gonzalo comes from a well-to-do family, while Pedro lives in a shantytown on the outskirts of Gonzalo’s neighbourhood. Father McEnroe, the principal of St. Patrick’s, enrolls a group of boys from low-income families at the elite private school with the conviction that the students will learn to respect one another. Set against the backdrop of President Salvador Allende’s final days and the military coup d’état, the film brilliantly reflects the tensions of the country through the friendships and betrayals in the lives of its children.

The three child actors in Machuca deliver absolutely heart-wrenching performances; they exude the tenderness and naivety of three youths who do not understand the abnormal nature of their friendship. In fact, their ignorance is what catalyzes much of the film.

—Stephen Borunda, Film Matters