Freedom of expression is an unaccustomed luxury for Chilean director/producer Tatiana Gaviola. Risking her life to make films during Pinochet's infamous dictatorship, she had documentary footage seized by the civil guards and was forced to go undercover to shoot certain scenes for her 1987 short Angeles (Angels).
Now, in her first feature since Pinochet was ousted in 1990, Gaviola draws on her experiences to craft a story of repression, manipulation and betrayal.
Mi ultimo hombre (My Last Man) follows a TV journalist, Florencia (Claudia Di Girólamo), as she interviews and begins an affair with a guerrilla leader, Pedro, played by Willy Semler from Johnny cien pesos (Johnny One Hundred pesos). Florencia discovers that Pedro's revolutionary "movement" is in reality just a two-man band, and her best friend, who is also her husband's lover, keeps tapes of the interview, which eventually end up in police hands.
News reports intersperse the story, giving an alternative, censored account of the events unfolding on screen.
"I wanted to show how the only reality in life is that there is no reality," explains Gaviola. "We are manipulated by information and images on personal, social and political levels, and that applies as much in Bosnia or Los Angeles as it does in Chile, although the film is obviously a reaction to Pinochet."
Gaviola calls Pinochet's 17 years of military rule, "the waiting days". Living in a society where, according to official estimates, some 3,000 people disappeared between 1974 and 1977 alone, "you were either waiting for hope or waiting for the police sirens," she says.
While making the film was a harrowing experience for Gaviola, she believes it was also cathartic. "Under Pinochet, you led a double life - thinking and feeling one thing, expressing another," she recalls. "You did it to survive, but in so doing you destroyed part of yourself.
Maybe by facing what has happened, we can start to come to terms with it."
Reaching Cannes inspires Gaviola with hope for Chile's nascent film industry. Self-financing Mi ultimo hombre, topped up by US$100,000 from Chile's Television Nacional (TVN), Gaviola believes that foreign producers will have the opportunity to recognise the potential of her country's filmmakers. "We have proved that, given the chance, we know what we are doing," she concludes.
Adam Minns
Prod Co: Gaviola Productions
Prod/Dir: Tatiana Gaviola
Scr: Jorge Durán
Ph: Gastón Roca
Mus: Jorge Arriagada
Ed: Rodolfo Wedeles
Cast: Claudia di Girólamo, Willy Semler, Liliana García
Running time: 89mins
International Sales: Gaviola Produductions
