Guzmán’s skills as a documentarian have not eroded one bit. His soft narration reminds one of Werner Herzog sans his, at times, metaphysical excesses. The director captures incredible footage of the protests as a functioning organism, a sublime wave of furious power. My Imaginary Country is at the level of classics such as The Battle of Algiers and even Guzmán’s The Battle of Chile. Protestors chip away at cobblestones in the street and form an assembly line to distribute the rocks they will use against government troops. A mesmerizing overhead shot shows an armored car driving down a road in Santiago. We see a trickle of protestors emerge from side streets and start to pelt the vehicle with rocks. As the automobile continues its drive, more and more protestors emerge from side streets, overwhelming the armored car. It is a gorgeous shot of the people taking on and overwhelming the state’s “legal” use of force.
“…captures incredible footage of the protests as a functioning organism…”
If this were simply footage of protests, it would not stand out among the many other documentaries focused on mass demonstrations. Instead, Guzmán balances footage of protests with interviews of the protestors. While these protests are “leaderless,” women are at the frontline of both street clashes and ideological warfare. We hear inspiring interviews describing how “with revolt, I blossomed.” We hear of a female journalist who was blinded by state troops as the state targeted reporters because they did not want its brutality against its citizens captured on film. In another harrowing account, a volunteer first responder relates how she treated injured protestors in the midst of projectiles being shot at her. The filmmaker wisely focuses on female protestors because, as every poor, underrepresented Chilean woman knows, patriarchy is not merely political. It is also baked into the culture.
My Imaginary Country gives the viewer clear proof that the mutilation of bodies does not just come at the hands of riot police. Such devastation comes about when individuals in political power, in concert with multinational corporations and countries from the Global North, uphold an economic system that aids a small percentage of the population in lining their pockets. You can trample people’s dignity for some of the time, but you cannot do so indefinitely. The people of Chile ran out of patience. It makes one wonder how much patience the people from the Global North have left.
My Imaginary Country screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
"…Guzmán will not allow Chile’s history to go silent..."
