MACHUCA Latin Cinema Series

Acclaimed director Andres Wood (LOCO FEVER, FOOTBALL STORIES) offers a perceptive story of friendship, class struggle and social responsibility. Chile’s official Oscar® selection for Best Foreign Language Film.

In a bid to foster mutual respect and tolerance, Father McEnroe-the headmaster of a private parochial school-admits children from the poor shantytown families. He is determined they will learn to respect each other. MACHUCA is a coming-of-age story set against the fall of the socialist Allende government and the installation of the military junta in Chile in 1973. The story is told through the eyes of two 11-year-old boys-Gonzalo Infante, who lives in a wealthy neighborhood, and Pedro Machuca, who lives in the shantytown. In addition to the practical difficulties involved in this attempt at integration, there are conflicts caused by the outward social confrontation taking place in Chilean society. As political tensions escalate within the country, the boys’ friendship is tested.

Set to a nostalgic ’70s-flavored Latino score, MACHUCA is a masterful work from a director who has the uncanny ability to encompass both the endearing and the bleak, the innocent and the contemptible. With richly drawn characters, Wood captures and intensifies the joys and pains of growing up.