116. 1976; movie review

 

1976

Cert 15

96 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language

Most weekends in the early 1980s, I caught the train back home to Coventry from studying in Wolverhampton with a mature student called Raul.

He had been exiled from his Chilean homeland because of the Pinochet regime but it is with great regret that I know little more about him.

It was before my career as a journalist but I still can't fathom why I didn't ask more details of what had happened to him, his friends and his family.

Raul was a polite soul with a smile I can still recall but I now know that there must have been a shroud of darkness, given the horrors he left behind.

I was reminded of him when I watched Manuela Martelli nervy thriller 1976, starring Aline Küppenheim.

She plays Carmen, a Santiago surgeon's wife who heads off to their beach house to supervise renovations.

Her husband (Alejandro Goic), children and grandchildren visit sporadically but, otherwise, her life is mundane, punctuated only by supervising her builders and reading to blind people.

However, she finds herself out of her comfort zone when the family priest (Hugo Medina) asks her to give medical care to a young man (Nicolás Sepúlveda) he is sheltering.

Suddenly, she is thrust from her very quiet life into the dangerous world of political rebellion.

The tension of 1976 feels especially realistic because Carmen is portrayed as being normal to the point of boring.

This is not a woman who would ever put herself forward and, consequently, the audience can almost feel her sweat and hear her heart beat as she faces potentially dangerous situations.

But, even knowing that she could be exposed and, as a consequence, tortured or even killed, she cannot resist the lure of the risk.

Little is said about the Pinochet regime during 1976 - there is just a sense of menace in its background but that is enough to keep the audience on edge.

Martelli builds her film expertly, Küppenheim is a convincing lead and the movie looks really good.

Reasons to watch: Tense and intriguing

Reasons to avoid: Requires background knowledge

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? According to the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation and the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, the number of direct victims of human rights violations in Chile under Pinochet accounts for around 30,000 people: 27,255 tortured and 2,279 executed. Meanwhile, 200,000 people suffered exile.

The final word. Manuela Martelli: "1976 was my grandmother’s year of death. She was really depressed in the last years of her life. I think a lot of women were going through this. They felt unfulfilled, but they were really lonely in these feelings." BFI

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