La Frontera

In 1985, Santiago, Chile, a mathematics teacher, Ramiro Orellana (Patricio Contreras), is exiled to a remote local village after protesting against the abduction and disappearance of a colleague. At this faraway place, accessible only by water and once flooded by a tidal wave, Ramiro’s movements are kept in check by two local officials, whose interaction recalls the comic routines of Abbot and Costello. Though in exile, Ramiro gradually becomes acquainted with the local villagers and falls in love with a rather eccentric Spanish woman burdened with minding her mad father. Director Ricardo Larrain portrays the remote village as a mythic, natural, and innocent world, where our hero rekindles love and stumbles upon a past era buried beneath the water. In this way, Larrain affirms the richness of local cultures in opposition to the frenetic, superficial nature of the modern city. However, as a satellite of the central government, this place is also enmeshed in the absurdity of red tape and the cruel nature of politics itself, whereby the ruling regime can so easily incriminate an innocent and idealistic man. Drawing on the cinema of Bunuel and Tomas Gutierrez Alea, and with rich, plentiful characterisations and fluid storytelling, La Frontera is a fine example of contemporary Chilean cinema. In Spanish with English subtitles.