As a foreigner studying new Chilean film it was this film which impressed me more than any. The low production costs, gloomily atmospheric cinematography and sparse mise-en-scene submerge the viewer in Santiago's poorer nieghbourhoods from the opening scene until the last. The film explores the breakdown of the family unit, the lure of crime for those poverty stricken sectors of society documented, but ultimately is a triumph of morality which restores the viewer's faith in the Chilean person.
This film shot Alejandro Trejo to fame as Taxista Ulises, and his relationships with his family and with the petty criminals who use him as their chauffeur underpin the narrative. One can see why a family man becomes tempted by the get rich quick option of small robberies when his family live in such poverty (his son asks for coca-cola, and is told thats too expensive, theres only tap-water. This family cannot buy into the capitalist dream and are swept away. Ulises, like many poorer citizens, turns to crime. The social question raised by Lubbert, a man exiled during the Military regime, is 'Perhaps wealth should be distributed more equally, then men like Ulises would not so easily become criminals.'). Also, one can see why Ulises is driven to infidelity, and the strain of poverty, and the suspicion of his crime, begin to show in his relationship with his wife.
This film exudes brooding social decline, even thirteen years after the fall of the Military Regime. The dry, sun beaten expanses of Santiago's poorer Western barrios are made undeniabley Chilean by imagery of the Plaza de Armas, Churrascos, and dialogues bursting with Chilean slang. The moody soundtrack of Vasconcelos adds a melanchony feel of despair to the three main character's situations. This is a Chilean film, documenting social problems, and doing so without indulging in hyperbolic comedy, as the two most successful films in Chilean history, Sexo Con Amor and El Chacotero Sentimental (at least two thirds), did so memorably.
Lubbert has returned to Chile in the new climate of social freedom, looked around him, and seen there remain serious social problems. The tension is always there, even if at times lighthearted, but the overriding theme is that of social criticism, and Lubbert has realized that he doesn't need to make people have sex on top of washing machines (a la Sexo Con Amor) to make Chileans go and see a Chilean film.
