Machuca

SANTIAGO, CHILE, 1973: TWO 11-YEAR-OLD BOYS FROM DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE TRACKS share the same classroom, but dif ferent perspectives on the impending coup against Allende. Gonzalo lives in a wealthy suburb, unaware of the growing resistance of his class to the socialist president; the more outgoing Machuca is one of many children inhabiting the city’s rough and tumble shantytown. When they become buddies, Machuca teaches Gonzalo to take advantage of the situation by selling nationalist banners to right-wing protesters and Communist banners to left-wing activists! But when the coup arrives they are affected in drastically dissimilar ways. MACHUCA is not just a political drama, but a poignant coming-of-age film, with perfectly pitched per formances by the young actors, based on filmmaker Andrés Wood’s own childhood.

"Richly human in focus, the drama steadily cranks up its political and emotional charge." --David Rooney, Variety