The poignant opening notes of a one-fingered piano play over black-and-white footage of crowds cheering Chilean president Salvador Allende, their faces full of passion and hope, making it clear that Patrizio Guzmán’s My Imaginary Country (Mi pais imaginario) is going to take the viewer on another journey through Latin American history. The renowned director of The Battle of Chile (1975), which chronicled the end of Allende’s democratically elected government and the birth of the dictatorship, is 80 now and still vitally interested in his country’s difficult march towards the free and equal society that its people had once envisioned.
Fans of the director’s stunning trilogy about Chile from the 2010s — Nostalgia for the Light, The Pearl Button, The Cordillera of Dreams – may miss the complex interweaving of science, politics and humanity that those films achieved so brilliantly and uniquely. The current work is a far more classic documentary focused on a major social revolution that is still in the process of becoming and can only be chronicled, not analyzed with analogies. Though its appeal is more limited, its bow in Cannes in the Special Screenings sidebar should give it some needed visibility on the festival circuit.
Hope is the theme of My Imaginary Country, and its current rebirth has taken everyone, including Guzmán, by surprise. The first part of the film chronicles his wonder at the spontaneous mass uprising and protests that broke out in October of 2019 over the rising cost of living, lack of social services and swelling poverty. The demonstrations in the capital Santiago are edge-of-seaters filled with violence and danger as the police fire tear gas directly at protesters. Many of those we see on camera are young men wrapped in hoods and gas masks, who respond by digging up the pavement and hurling blocks of stone back at the cops in riot gear. Shot close to the action in the midst of clouds of white gas, these scenes are edited at a nerve-jangling pace.
“If you want to film a fire, you have to be at the place of the first spark.” This catchy line was suggested to Guzmán by his mentor, the filmmaker Chris Marker, and it is self-evidently true. The director’s clear, thoughtful voice describes the extraordinary scene before our eyes. A protest march shot from a drone high overhead has reached an eye-popping 1.2 million furious protesters crowding the city’s wide avenues, parks and public squares. It is a movement “without leaders or ideologies”, completely outside of political parties, and full of women, too.
And there are casualties and many serious injuries. A young mother filmed wearing a black hood with only her eyes showing insists she is willing to die to ensure a democratic future for her son; a photographer explains the incredible pain she felt when she was shot in the eye by the police, leaving her vision permanently impaired. (There have been some 400 eye injuries.) The many women who Guzmán briefly interviews are fearless, articulate, and determined to change the very fabric of their society. The second part of the film shifts to scenes spotlighting their creativity: artists painting on walls and singers reciting a feminist poem demanding an end to fear and rape at the hands of an oppressive patriarchy.
What has been the outcome of the furious indignation that started a blaze throughout Chile? One woman firmly states that after a year of continual protests, not a single law has been passed acknowledging the people’s demands for better health care, access to education and basic welfare independent of income levels. And yet, in the remarkable final scenes, a referendum has been passed, with 80% of the voters in favor of drafting a new constitution for the modern age to replace the one established by the Pinochet regime. The feeling of hope in the last sequences is joyfully palpable, encompassing gender inclusion, indigenous people and social activists of all kinds. But whether the time for change has finally come for Chileans still feels like a close call.
Director, screenplay: Patrizio Guzmán
Producers: Renate Sachse, Alexandra Galvis
Cinematography: Samuel Lahu
Editing: Laurence Manheimer
Music: Jose Miguel Tobar
Sound: Aymeric Dupas, Claire Cahu
Production companies: Atacama Productions, Arte France Cinema, Market Chile
World Sales: Pyramide International
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Special Screenings)
83 minutes
