The Mole Agent – ​​El agente topo (2020)

Directed by: Maite Alberdi | 90 minutes | documentary

‘The Mole Agent’ is an intelligent docudrama from Chile. Not that the title makes a lot of waves, it’s a trick to bring a narrator, who shows the needs and grievances of old age, into a care center. As sobering and rippling, director Alberdi walks a path between Frans Bromet and ‘Man Bijt Hond’, a piece of elderly anthropology without pretensions – albeit carefully made.

Some old people are as disarming as children, others are moved by their loneliness. The sense of community is stronger in Spanish-speaking countries than with us, so is its loss compared to our sober reality. However, the problems are the same: lack of meaning and loneliness; the economic man makes short work of the emotional and social needs of the senior – also in Chile.

What’s new? Not much, and recognizability is not enough. The 83-year-old Sergio is the mole who goes undercover in the nursing home, a not quite successful trick of the filmmaker. OK, Sergio is hired by a private detective because one of a resident’s children suspects her mother is being abused, but the motive plays a minor role in the course of the documentary.

Officially we have to say: docudrama, but that’s all. Although Sergio alienates from his role and bonds with his peers, the story motif as mentioned is mainly an entrance to tell. And it all remains a bit well-behaved, with lots of static shots and long conversations. Nevertheless, what is shown is authentic and can therefore be called documentary. ‘The Mole Agent’ is believable in what is shown and strikes a chord with it.