Writers: Pedro Peirano, Antonio Skarmeta
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Luis Gnecco
Language: Spanish
An ad executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum.
The film is shot using Sony's low definition 3/4 inch U-matic magnetic tapes which were widely used by television news channels in the 80s. This was done so as to mix the archive footage seamlessly with the film's material. Have to say it was a bold decision as it would have reduced the appeal of the film to generally more stupid kind of audience. It works really well for this film as one problem I always have with period films is that everything appears to be squeaky clean and shiny.
The acting is very understated especially from Bernal. The film doesn't appear to show that the ad-campaign was the primary reason for the result. One criticism it has faced is that it is kind of celebrating the fact that political campaigns are getting taken over by the marketing department as opposed to being a battle of ideologies. It is really naive to believe that large majority of people actually vote based on issues.
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