Manuela Martelli

Actor turned director Manuela Martelli’s accomplished debut feature is a restrained slow burn of a political thriller. The film is anchored by a perfectly modulated performance by Aline Küppenheim as middle class housewife Carmen whose life has so far been shielded from the brutality of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1970s Chile. Carmen is more concerned with choosing the right color paint for her beach house than with the screams of an unseen woman in the street.

Chile ’76 is a powerful political thriller. This first feature by actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, who also co-wrote the script with Alejandra Moffat, is set in the atmosphere of dread that swept over Chile during the 1970s as the repressive measures of the Pinochet dictatorship became harsher and harsher day by day. The compelling story centers on the political awakening of Carmen, an upper class a-political Chilean woman, the wife of a well-known physician, whose daily live revolves around family gatherings, shopping and lunching with friends — until she unintentionally becomes politicized.

Set in Chile during the brutal, oppressive Pinochet dictatorship, Chile ’76 is a film that sneaks up on you, starting like a quiet drama about a wealthy woman who is satisfied with her settled life, but gradually morphing into a white-knuckle thriller about life under Pinochet. Aline Kuppenheim’s sensitive yet striking performance drives this thriller, as we are drawn into her world and her changing feelings. An impressive debut by a actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, Chile ’76 is a chilling, powerful political thriller as a woman’s view of the world around her is shaken to its foundations in the film’s devastating conclusion.