“1976” recounts the dark years of Chile under the dictatorship, from the intimacy of a family

directors like Andres Wood, Sebastien Lelio. Pablo Larain, Dominga Sotomayor oh I love Alberdi are some of the most important names in contemporary Chilean cinema. An industry that is growing little by little and paving the way for new protagonists, such as Manuela Martelli. The famous actress presents her first film 1976, which was nominated for Best Ibero-American Film in the latest installment of Goya Prize and has been screened in more than 30 international festivals around the world, among which stand out walking sticks or the BFI London Film Festival. Besides, was recently nominated for four Platinum Rewards including: best screenplay, female interpretation, first fiction film and artistic direction.

1976 It’s a look at one of the darkest years of the dictatorship, from inside a home, and from a woman’s perspective. It’s a thriller with flashes of suspense in the best Hitchcockian style that illustrates one of the darkest moments in Chilean history with a splendid performance by Aline Kuppenheim which demonstrates the interesting potential of auteur cinema in this country.

Carmen goes to the beach to supervise the renovation of her house. Her husband, children and grandchildren come and go for the winter holidays. When her family’s priest asks her to look after a young man he’s secretly harboring, Carmen ventures into uncharted territory, far from the quiet life she’s used to.

GlobeLiveMedia Culture spoke with the director Manuela Martelli about this ambitious project that begins this Thursday in Argentina.

—What were your personal motivations for making this film?

“A few years ago, I started collecting stories from my family about my maternal grandmother, who was a grandmother I didn’t know. They made me very curious, because I felt like I was in a way heir to a path that she opened up for the women of the family, giving space and breaking with certain patterns of what it meant to be a woman in the years 50 and 60. 18, two years later, she became a mother, had three daughters and was a housewife. Let’s say she fulfilled all the mandates she had to be a woman in those years. Later, he entered the School of Applied Arts, which was a very progressive school here in Chile in the 1970s, and the world opened up to him. He discovered another space in which he did not feel completely part of, because he also felt that he had already built a life.

Her life short-circuited and I feel like she started walking down a path that I think was one that a lot of women of that time had blazed. In Chile, women only had the full right to vote in 1952. So, I believe that the feminist revolution that we are experiencing should pay tribute to those women who started this work and of which we are the heirs. This is where the movie started. Moreover, my grandmother died in 1976 very depressed and it also seemed important to me to observe this phenomenon not as something inherent to her, but rather as a social phenomenon. Then begins a search to understand a little this dialogue between the public space and the intimate, domestic or private space. How this public space filtered inside a house. Later, I started doing research to collect stories as a living memory of those subjects that seemed invisible to history: stories of anonymous women, of hidden life and also of people who participated in politics or historians. I was mainly interested in saving living memory that wasn’t in the books.

It may interest you: Maite Alberdi: “I make observation films, my theme is fragility and how people are isolated”

— How was the film received in your country?

—The film was very well received in Chile. It was well received and I was very surprised at the interest of young people. This caught my attention because I noticed how memory is forgotten. The fact that many were surprised that these aberrant things are happening in our country. It was then that I realized the importance of remembering again and again. Of course, there is a group that does not like to remember this period of Chilean history and still resists seeing them again and keeping them in mind. There are speeches like: “Once again, we keep talking about the dictatorship” oh “why another film on the dictatorship”. This is something we hear very often and which is not true, that is to say that in Chile, if we trust the statistics, the percentage of films about the dictatorship is minimal compared to to other themes, but these films make noise. This myth is fed that Chilean cinema talks about the dictatorship. I imagine this also happens in Argentina.

— What happened to the public in other countries?

– Depends on the country. Some of them keep in mind this period of Chilean history because they received many exiles, for example in France and Sweden. In other cases, some are surprised or can also relate it to their own reality, for example in Spain with Franco. Something similar happened there since those responsible for the dictatorship were not tried either, unlike in Argentina.

— What elements of your acting experience did you apply to directing?

—It was very difficult for me to apply what I knew as an actress to the script. It seems absurd but it was very difficult for me to understand how this transfer was done. I think starting at a very young age made me approach the game in a very intuitive way and it felt like things had no words for me and I didn’t have such a clear methodology either. But after a short time, I realized that I could do this writing exercise, like when you create a character as an actress. The map was assembled and there I understood where the film was going. It happened when I started thinking about the character.

—How was the creation of this suffocating atmosphere in which the film takes place?

—What interested me was to show how difficult it is sometimes to break down structures that are so deeply rooted in society. They have repercussions within the family and even vice versa: the family is a nursery or a space where these mandates are reinforced and become permanent. Until something breaks the character’s reality and he manages to find his mind, which one could say is asleep or repressed. How domestic space can be as restrictive as a dictatorship.

—What did you take into account when choosing Aline Küppenheim as the protagonist?

We had acted in two films together. Ever since I was writing the film, I wanted it to be her. A line He has the ability to say a lot with very little and to convey his thoughts. It is possible to read what he is thinking, as he was a rather calm and reserved character. It is very delicate, fragile and at the same time has a lot of strength. What’s more, she’s an excellent actress, very generous and intelligent, she easily understands what she’s doing and also knows the job and understands filming. She is able to be aware of everything that is happening around her, she does not focus only on herself.

“In Argentina, only 20% of films released in 2021 are directed by women. What is the situation in Chile?

“I think we have a less established industry. Argentina established its industry at a time when cinema was still a very masculine profession. I have some hope because the film industry in Chile is still in its infancy, so it’s forming in a time when there’s a lot more gender awareness. It seems to me that it can have positive results in that sense, being a little more fair industry in those terms. But at the same time, of course, cinema until five years ago was a profession for men, that is to say a profession reserved for them and with exceptions. Women were just that, an exception to the rule. However, today I feel a little hope. It’s not a reality, but I see a lot of enthusiasm among women. I see a lot of women wanting to make films and make a name for themselves.

Continue reading