1976

In the coastal Chilean town of Las Cruces, a woman's life metamorphosizes when she is asked by the local priest to care for a young criminal. Spending the winter of 1976 redecorating their family beach house, Carmen finds herself reusing her old skills as a nurse to care for a wounded young man, Elías, being kept in hiding by the local priest. Quickly, she realises that her caring nature could be the cause of great harm.

Tension seeps into all aspects of the film, from the sound design to the cinematography to the performances, in an unexpected gem of a character study. Each frame is skilfully crafted to capture the feel of the setting alongside Carmen’s growing anxiety as she becomes more involved with helping the injured man.

An unnervingly brilliant portrait of the ways in which the Pinochet dictatorship realised its brute force and pervasive influence. Martelli’s debut sublimely embodies the style and tone of classic 70s thrillers like Coppola’s The Conversation or Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now.

• "Nerve-jangling noir unpicks middle-class guilt of Pinochet era" - ★★★★ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

This film is F-Rated. The F-Rating is applied to all films which are directed by women and/or written by women. Find out more about F-Rating.

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