CHILE ’76

Set during the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, Chile ‘76 builds from a character study to a suspenseful thriller as it explores one woman’s precarious experience with political engagement. Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) lives a sheltered life. She heads to her summer house in the off-season to supervise its renovation, while also performing local charitable works through her church. Her husband, children, and grandchildren come back and forth, bringing reminders of the world beyond. When the family priest asks her to take care of an injured young man he has been sheltering in secret, Carmen is inadvertently drawn into the world of the Chilean political opposition and must face real-world threats she is unprepared to handle, with potentially disastrous consequences for her and her entire family. 2022, Chile/Argentina, 95 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles.

Chile ’76, by Manuela Martelli, is brought to you by Rivertown Film in collaboration with the Global Film Series and the annual Hispanic & Latina/o/x Heritage Month hosted by St. Thomas Aquinas College.

After the film there will be a discussion with Dr. Juan Pablo Valenzuela, assistant professor of History and Political Sciences at Perimeter College, Georgia State University, via Skype.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état in Chile, September 11, when General and military dictator Augusto Pinochet, with the support of the CIA, orchestrated the fall of the democratically elected president Salvador Allende. To commemorate and reflect on the occasion, Rivertown Film and St. Thomas Aquinas College come together to honor the history and cultural heritage through the lens of cinema. We invite you to join us in the screening and presentation of Chile ’76 by Manuela Martelli,

Chile ’76 not only commemorates a significant anniversary in Chilean history but also holds a mirror to the broader struggles for democracy, human rights, and social justice that reverberated across continents. The film presents an opportunity for us to engage in a dialogue about the consequences of political upheaval, the resilience of communities, and the power of art to bear witness to collective experiences.

Chile ’76 debuted internationally at the Cannes Film Festival and was awarded Best First Film at the London Film Festival. In addition, Manuela Martelli won Best Director at the Athens Film Festival, and Kuppenheim won Best Actress at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

“Finely controlled and tense with the perpetual promise of violence… [and] a hell of a performance from Küppenheim as the heroine.” – The New Yorker

“A gripping psychological thriller … one of the finest Latin American productions to open stateside this year” – Los Angeles Times

“Critic’s Pick! A sly genre exercise, an example of how political repression can squeeze a domestic melodrama until it takes the shape of a spy thriller.” “A visually and tonally meticulous exploration of political resistance and conscience.” –The New York Times

“Dazzling. What begins as a muted marital melodrama slowly boils into a restrained political thriller, with an ease and skill all the more impressive in a first feature.” – Variety

“This searingly intense character study sees a woman questioning her cosy bourgeois lifestyle in Pinochet’s Chile. An invaluable demonstration of feminine revolutionary cinema.” – Little White Lies

“Must-Watch! Chile ’76 is the foreign film you’d be ashamed to miss… A period thriller of beguiling power, energized by its portrait of one woman’s heroism.” – The Daily Beast

“Shrewdly compelling. Aline Kuppenheim is excellent in a film that leverages its genre into an unnervingly timeless study of authoritarianism.” – Indiewire

“A film that could have settled for being a masterclass in technique, but instead goes deeper, exploring questions of artistry, authorship, legacy.” NPR

“Had The Christophers just been a cross-generational punch-up, the sort of flinty showdown designed to throw off pleasurable sparks, you’d still walk away content. It remains a conduit for two of the best performances you’ll see all year.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“The Christophers is largely a comedy, but it’s also about all that we gain and lose with age, and about how we sometimes need young people to bring us back to ourselves.” – Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

“Having lost the inspiration that guided him to greatness, Julian is an artist who can no longer paint, and Lori is an artist who has lost all confidence in there being a place for her work in the larger world. For all the undercurrents about fame, commodification, and reputation that flow through The Christophers, at its core is a more plaintive lament about what it feels like to love something that doesn’t love you back.” – Alison Willmore, Vulture

“Go see The Christophers. Show up, and support a tiny, talky experiment that has no relationship to IP or sequels or box-office projection. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s also never, as Lori grudgingly notes about Julian’s work, uninteresting. And in this cultural moment, that’s an authentic win.” – Elizabeth Weitzman, Time Out

“The Christophers is a work of criticism that deftly distinguishes different approaches to criticism.” ­– Justin Chang, The New Yorker 

“Brims with hilarious dialogue, lightly satirical observations of a culture that treats art as a commodity, and satisfying payoffs to a number of story elements planted early on.” – Seth Katz, Slant Magazine

“In the end, this film about artists becomes a work of art in its own right. The more you look at it, the more its many components reveal themselves to you.” – Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap

“Ian McKellen plays Julian Sklar, a sardonic art legend who meets his intellectual match in frank preservationist Lori Butler (Michaela Coel). In a test of wits and wills held mostly in a single-setting, Soderbergh pushes both characters to return to their former passions through philosophical conversations that reflect his own career.” – Robert Daniels, Screen International

“It bats about ideas pertaining to art, commerce, ownership and legacy with dexterous aplomb and boasts two equally superb leads who make the material crackle.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“The Christophers is a talky, at times incredibly funny, comedy drama with plot reversals that make it feel like it’s on the verge of a thriller. It doesn’t end up there, at least not strictly, but it’s unpredictable enough to never make us entirely sure just where it’s heading.” – Benjamin Lee, Guardian

“There’s no room for anything shy of genius in The Christophers, a crackling original drama about artistic legacy in all its facets, directed by Steven Soderbergh , from a script by Ed Solomon (No Sudden Move) and starring two top-notch English actors of wildly different backgrounds and styles, Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, at the top of their respective games.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“With Ian McKellen in superbly crotchety form and Michaela Coel exuding chilly cunning, it’s further proof that Soderbergh remains one of American Cinema’s most inimitable, and adventurous, auteurs. – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast