I'm sorry to say that this film missed the (my) boat completely, regardless of the positive reviews that I found elsewhere. I appreciate the background of good versus bad people in the Pinochet days, and that they carry the weight of their past with them many years thereafter. Apart from the doctor who we saw as the target of a political demonstration, allegedly one of the "bad" guys, that history came only along in the form of TV commentary about the Pinochet funeral.
The two main characters (father and daughter) in the film appeared later on as Santa Claus and helpmate on a party for the children of that same doctor. That is the only connection between the worlds of the good and the bad that I could detect. Alas, it did not work out and much more could have been made of this theme.
I saw this at the Rotterdam film festival 2011, where the actual screening was preceded by a 25 minutes short, without any relation to the main theme. The verbal explanation got lost in the noise of the public still entering the venue. I'm still wondering what this was all about. However, this may be an incident, not repeated with further screenings of this movie.
All in all, I'm disappointed and had expected much more. This inexhaustible good versus bad theme had several much better implementations elsewhere in and out the Rotterdam filmfestival 2011.
The two main characters (father and daughter) in the film appeared later on as Santa Claus and helpmate on a party for the children of that same doctor. That is the only connection between the worlds of the good and the bad that I could detect. Alas, it did not work out and much more could have been made of this theme.
I saw this at the Rotterdam film festival 2011, where the actual screening was preceded by a 25 minutes short, without any relation to the main theme. The verbal explanation got lost in the noise of the public still entering the venue. I'm still wondering what this was all about. However, this may be an incident, not repeated with further screenings of this movie.
All in all, I'm disappointed and had expected much more. This inexhaustible good versus bad theme had several much better implementations elsewhere in and out the Rotterdam filmfestival 2011.
