45/23
A girl’s gift for the events of Hollywood films changes the fate of her family in a Chilean village in the 1960s. Features From Here to Eternity (1953). This film, seen at the Toronto International Film Festival, is both an homage to American Westerns and an exploration of the power of cinema/storytelling to change lives. Subtitled in Spanish, the characters are drawn from real life, and at the same time, from a rather difficult life. The community, located in the “driest place on earth,” is not unhappy. There is plenty of room for gentle comedy and young love. The camera turns away from real violence, but not from the story, which frankly talks about what goes on behind the scenes of the town in the salt desert at the center of the story. The film was shot on location in an abandoned mining town, which only adds to its versatility.