a remarkable, autobiographical documentary recounting the rise and post-coup-d'état demise of the Chilean Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR); Castilla was the fiancée of Miguel Enriquez who was head of the anti-Pinochet resistance and they were together when he was killed in a shoot-out a year after the coup; miraculously she survived and, thanks to extraordinary luck, her pregnancy and international renown, and thanks to the help of many people including bystanders, she was exiled to France where she became a spokesperson for the Chilean resistance-in-exile; the film is very much a woman's film, made by a woman, in dialogue with her younger self, telling her own story as well as that of the Movement, and interviewing many women survivors of the brutal Pinochet repression - it seems that the men were more likely to die in shoot-outs or be disappeared than the women, the women were tortured and imprisoned but not so often killed - and so there are more women survivors than men - spouses, mothers, daughters, comrades...; cinematographically straight, mixing archive footage with interviews and emotional returns; a long and very moving film - I was on the edge of tears several times - and a profound exploration of the question of whether the revolutionary victims died in vain or not - with no clear answer given, the question is turned around and around as are many of the questions to do with revolution, ideology and armed struggle; the film features much music, much of it very good, especially the song (what?) which accompanies the closing credits
kolya gelsin