Machuca (2004)

Directed by: Andrés Wood | 121 minutes | drama, biography | Actors: Matías Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli, Ernesto Malbran, Aline Küppenheim, Federico Luppi, Francisco Reyes, Luis Dubó, Tamara Acosta, Maria Olga Matte, Gabriela Medina, Tiago Correa, Alejandro Trejo, Andrea García-Huidobro, Pablo Krögh, Sebastian Trautmann

‘Machuca’ has a lot, a lot: a moving storyline, good actors and beautiful music. The two protagonists, the rich Gonzalo Infante (Matías Quer) and the poor Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) meet when Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbran) decides to admit scholarship students to his English boys’ school.

Malbran portrays the idealist McEnroe with strength and passion: he is a man to love. In reality, McEnroe’s name is Gerardo Whelan. This father was director of St. Georges College in Santiago from 1969 to 1973, where, like McEnroe in the film, he tried to unite two worlds.

Besides Malbran, the very young protagonists also play the stars of heaven. It is wonderful to see how their friendship develops. Their interplay and experiences evoke various emotions: from bewilderment, anger and sadness to emotion. For example, the look of Gonzalo after his first kiss is touching. Memorable is also the scene in which Pedro is visibly enjoying the birthday party of Gonzalos’ sister. He dances along to the disco music, feasts on cola and snacks and looks around curiously. It becomes even more beautiful when the two drink alcohol together: it makes the gentlemen completely giggle.

The two actors convince during happy moments as well as in sad situations. Like, for example, after the birthday party. Gonzalo and Pedro then overhear an argument between Gonzalo’s parents. Embarrassed, Gonzalo lowers his eyes. You would want to comfort him like that. Just like you would want to embrace Pedro after confronting his drunken father. In this scene, he rubs the two boys in that the gap between them is unbridgeable; that Gonzalo will end up as director and Pedro at most as cleaner.

How far apart their worlds are becomes clear at the parents’ evening. During this meeting, Gonzalo’s snobbish mother’s ideas collide with those of Pedro’s belligerent mother. In a clear and penetrating way, director Andrés Wood ‘(La Fiebre del Loco’, ‘El Desquite’) shows in ‘Machuca’ the discontent among the rich during the Allende regime, in the run-up to the coup d’état that Pinochet brought to power.

Equally impressive is the way in which he portrays the chaos and fear in the first days after the takeover. Then the camera turns off. Unfortunately. By describing only a very short period of time less than a year in the lives of the two boys, Wood leaves a little too many questions about their development in the period afterward unanswered. This gives this beautiful film something unfinished.