My Imaginary Country

CinemaSerfDec 2023

3.0

Perhaps because I've recently watched quite a few lively and informative documentaries based around the protests in Hong Kong, I found this all rather repetitive, partisan and dry. It's not that the story isn't well worth telling, it's just that Patricio Guzmán relies too heavily on the (perilously shot) archive footage and protester interviews without really putting much context into just what is happening in Chile in 2019. The narrative suggests it's about equal rights for education and job opportunities, but there is little illustration from that narrative just how the protesters aim to achieve that in a politically divided nation that hovers close to bankruptcy and has very close ties to a Catholic church that is catholic in more the just name. They present many of the answers but are they viable solutions? This film just presents us with a rather one sided video-diary of police excess whilst students merrily throw petrol bombs at people doing their jobs - in this admittedly flawed democracy. This also assumes a degree of knowledge of the local situation that I doubt many independent observers have, and thereby it presents us with a sort of David and Goliath scenario clearly inviting us to support one side without making any effort at all to explain the strategy of the Piñera government. I think balance is really important with political documentaries. Present us with both sides and let us choose which to believe and maybe endorse. Present me with a once-sided, intellectual, fait accompli and I'm afraid I usually just lose interest. It's worth a watch, but needed much more meat on the bones of debate.