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Nae Pasaran
***
Dir: Felipe Bustos Sierra
(Chile/UK, 12A, 1hr 36mins)
Nae Pasaran is a documentary focusing on sharing the stories of two very different groups of people in two very different places and how they crossed paths in the 1970s, and the effects of that interaction today. The first of these groups is a band of survivors of Chile’s fascist dictatorship which lasted from 1973-1990. The other is a team of now-retired factory workers from East Kilbride, 30 minutes from Glasgow.
The film itself begins with outlining the historical context for its action. In 1973, Salvador Allende, the democratically-elected left-wing president of Chile, was overthrown by a military coup. A core aspect of the coup, led by General Augusto Pinochet, was the use of British-built Hawker Hunter jets in bombing the presidential palace where Allende later committed suicide. One year later, Chilean Air Force jet engines arrive in a Scottish factory for repairs. Bob Fulton, an engine inspector and WW2 veteran, is disgusted by Pinochet’s dictatorship, and discards the engines to rust outside the factory for years on end. In 2018, Fulton and his colleagues from the factory discover how their solidarity impacted the people of Chile, learning of the horrors inflicted on them.
The opening sequence of Nae Pasaran largely summarises both its flaws and ultimate strengths. The piece begins with an expertly-compiled selection of archive footage detailing Pinochet’s coup, combined with gravitas-illuminating music which lends a slick, professional look to the film. Key to this is that the opening section ends by introducing the East Kilbride workers chatting about their younger days in the local pub. The simple charm here, in introducing this group of friends and the personal picture they each paint of Bob Fulton, characterises the wider successes of the film in the sense that these men form the backbone of the piece. But the way the piece then moves from such moments towards the Scottish side of its story is rather abrupt and clunkily edited. Indeed, Felipe Bustos Sierra’s direction seems to split the piece into two different types of film at points; crisply professional investigatory documentary filmmaking in the Chilean sections; and a sincere, if at times cinematically obtuse, homegrown homage to the East Kilbride workers.
Nae Pasaran marks Sierra’s feature-length directorial debut, and he employs a bevy of different cinematic techniques in constructing it. Various uses of CGI, including a fake time-lapse to take an environment back to the 1970s, as well as wispy recreations of the factory worker’s memories, all prove interesting if a little anachronistic. Likewise, although the discourses and points Sierra makes while on camera remain engaging, his presence in the film is never properly introduced or truly foregrounded in the final piece. While Sierra plays with too many tools rather than refining any particular aspect of the film, the enthusiasm and unexpected routes with which he tackles the material show some strong potential for future work.
The most confident aspects of Sierra’s direction lie in the politicisation of the piece. The way the camera lingers admirably on Fulton’s co-workers after he reinforces his anti-fascist viewpoints. The labelling of interviewees as holding a particular job “until the coup”. The quietly-mocking closeups of a toy plane during an interview with the former Commander-in-Chief of Pinochet’s Air Force, with the film in these moments the film presenting a determined cry against far-right extremism. Such aspects do not overshadow the wider film, however, which ultimately remains a story of defiance, respect and solidarity. As Sierra himself says within the film when discussing the public reaction to the East Kilbride boycott, “Afterwards, the unions turned it into more of a political issue, but initially, it was a humanitarian effort.” This humanitarian component is the one which Sierra ultimately keeps his focus on. While not every aspect of Nae Pasaran works, it does often gently shine.
words Edward Lee
Out now in cinemas