Chile '76

What Martelli and her co-conspirators have created with the radicalization of Carmen in Chile ‘76 -- and what, incidentally, eludes so many contemporary horror films -- is the palpable sense of dread.

Chile ’76 turns out to be a paranoid thriller altogether worthy of the era it captures with such cool, self-contained style.

A very powerful and chilling reminder of what it would be like to live in a police state.

With her first film, writer-director Manuela Martelli would make Alan J. Pakula proud as she revisits a tumultuous time in her country.

A gripping psychological thriller written and directed by Manuela Martelli, distills the sociopolitical ills of the South American country during one of its bleakest periods into a blistering radiograph of a torn character.

There’s subtlety, and then there’s deliberate evasion. In pursuing the former, “Chile ‘76” only achieves the latter.

Unlike standard issue noir, though, in which the character becomes embroiled in crime of the civilian (if sometimes organized) variety, Chile ’76 involves political crime and the always present threat of domestic political violence.

A political and psychological thriller about the moral struggle of a bourgeois women living under a dictatorship.

Very Precise in its screenplay and in its mise-en-scène, the debut feature by Chilean Manuela Martelli follows the steps of a woman with bourgeois manners who, in the midst of a dictatorship, sees her moral conscience shaken. [Full review in Spanish]

With Chile ’76, Martelli has crafted a simmering political thriller that reflects what it’s like to live under a dark cloud of creeping mistrust and the threat of violence.