Machuca (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #37 extract: Machuca (2004)

Machuca is a powerful film about the brief reign of Allende's socialist government in early 70s Chile. In following a trio of children who come into contact through an educational equality programme, this allegorically traces a rather futile attempt at integration which is nullified by bitter social tensions that eventually turn poisonous. Machuca is then a film about a refusal to change, about progress not being given a chance, and such a denial not giving rise to a previous regime and way of being, but a bruised and devolved incarnation of the past. 

Without romanticism or much bias, Machuca features a historical story told well and framed quite poignantly. Recommended.