My Imaginary Country

12/31/2023

Perhaps because I've recently watched quite a few lively and informative documentaries based around the protests in Hong Kong, I found this all rather repetitive, partisan and dry. It's not that the story isn't well worth telling, it's just that Patricio Guzmán relies too heavily on the (perilously shot) archive footage and protester interviews without really putting much context into just what is happening in Chile in 2019. The narrative suggests it's about equal rights for education and job opportunities, but there is little illustration from that narrative just how the protesters aim to achieve that in a politically divided nation that hovers close to bankruptcy and has very close ties to a Catholic church that is catholic in more the just name. They present many of the answers but are