In the Fifties, a murder occurs in the dining room of the most elegant hotel in Santiago de Chile. It is a crime of passion in which Maria Carolina Geel (Francisca Lewin) shoots her long-time lover five times. Mercedes, a court clerk in charge of the case (Elisa Zulueta), becomes obsessed with Carolina from the moment she sees her leaving the crime scene. The judge, Mercedes’ boss, sends her to collect personal effects from the assassin’s apartment.
Mercedes/Mecha/Mechita, as she is called indifferently without her protesting or choosing, lives with her husband and two teenage children in a crowded house, playing the role of wife, mother, domestic worker and photography consultant, without recognition for any of these positions. When she enters Carolina’s home on her mission for the judge, she gets to know a different space: its luxurious interiors, the woman’s clothes, jewelry and make-up, but also the fact that it belongs to a woman who does not need to share it with anyone else. Mercedes tries on a little perfume, then uses the lipstick, then keeps the keys to the apartment. Gradually she takes it over, finding in it the peace and tranquility she does not have in her own home.
In Her Place (El lugar de la otra) is not a case of personality substitution like Polanski’s The Tenant (1976). Mercedes does not seek to get into Carolina’s psyche, does not explore the motives for the crime or the relationship she had with her lover, or with her son or ex-husband. Mercedes, as she appears in the film, wants to have the physical place with everything, wardrobe included. Mercedes sees, perhaps for the first time, that another life is possible for a woman, but she does not want to improve her own: simply usurp one that is already established. Mercedes never reflects upon the fact that the life-style and deference received by Carolina is not a matter of education or a personal decision; in the Fifties as in 21st century Latin America, it has to do with economic solvency, which she does not have.
Maite Alberdi makes her first stop in San Sebastian competition with a great résumé as a documentary filmmaker. Her works The Mole Agent (El agente Topo) and The Eternal Memory (La Memoria Infinita) were nominated for Oscar submission and have won many awards in Latin America and Spain. In Her Place is produced by Pablo Larraín, the most successful Chilean director of his generation.
But it is also produced by Netflix which, while it has sponsored some great productions, tends to standardize its content. The streaming platforms are having a great impact on Latin American cinema, increasing production and employing a large number of technicians and directors. Nevertheless, this is not a case like Alfonso Cuarón’s Rome, where a very famous director and Oscar award winner made a personal film distributed worldwide. Or a case like Pablo Larraín’s own El Conde, which he was able to film in black and white with great freedom.
Perhaps that is why the director does not explore the many possibilities of the screenplay. We do not know the motivation for a carefully planned and executed murder. Why kill in that public place? Why did Carolina want to be punished? These are questions that should intrigue the interloper occupying her place. Maybe the production company didn’t like the idea that Mercedes could have an easy and attractive one-night affair. Above all, the question remains: why does the husband — portrayed as a dominant male who has taken over all the space in Mercedes’ life, even the cameras given to her by her father — simply say, “This is not your place, come home” in a very sympathetic tone? The situation called for a strict, “Come back now or don’t ever come back.”
Carolina Geel, the real-life killer, was sentenced to three years in prison and then pardoned after two years by the president of Chile, following the intervention of Chilean Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral. It was a case where a pardon can seem worse than the conviction, as if women cannot be full-fledged murderers.
Director: Maite Alberdi
Screenplay: Inés Bortagaray, Paloma Salas
Producers: Juan de Dios Larraín , Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jaude
Photography: Sergio Armstrong
Edition: Alejandro Carrillo Penovi
Music: Miguel Miranda
Sound: Miguel Hormazábal
Cast: Elisa Zulueta, Francisca Lewin, Marcial Tagle, Pablo Macaya, Gabriel Urzúa
Production company: Fabula (Chile)
Distribution: Netflix (Spain)
Running Time: 95 m.
In Spanish