Machuca (2004)

Film set in Santiago in 1973 and based on a real experiment done during Salvador Allende’s socialist government in Saint George’s College.

Gonzalo Infante, an eleven year-old student at Saint Patricks School, a renowned religious school whose director father McEnroe implements an integration program that allows for children of lower class to enter the school with free admission, in order to educate them without discrimination and for children of upper class and lower class learn to respect each other. One of them is Pedro Machuca, a slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo’s liberal-bourgeois home. Both children become great friends, they visit their homes and social realities but the social confrontation at that time makes it impossible for this programme to succeed. 

Curators' note:

An interesting view of the political and social scenario before Pinochet’s dictatorship and also a view of the harsh social contrasts. 

Watch the trailer

Directed by Andrés Wood, Chile, 2004. Runtime 116 mins