The Pearl Button

Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán is known for his documentaries focusing on the 1973 coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende—which ushered in the repressive military regime of Augusto Pinochet—including The Battle of Chile; Chile, Obstinate Memory (VL-1/99); and Salvador Allende (VL Online-6/07). In his latest essay, the overriding metaphor is the sea off Chile's long coastline, where he compares the plight of the indigenous people of Patagonia—whose maritime lifestyle was crushed by governmental decree—with the Pinochet regime's habit of disposing of corpses by tossing them into the ocean from helicopters. The two threads are linked by the story of Jemmy Button, a tribesman who was lured by a pearl bauble into traveling to Europe in the 19th century and then returning to Patagonia having lost his identity (a button found on one of the rails that were used to weigh down the bodies of junta victims provides a visual connection). Guzmán's reflections on water as essential to life are reinforced by observations from artists, poets, and scientists. Evocative and hypnotic, The Pearl Button continues Guzmán's effort to keep the memory of the horrifying events of the '70s alive while also comparing them with earlier instances of man's inhumanity to man. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include an “Encounters” making-of featurette (35 min.), a booklet essay by film critic Eric Hynes, and a trailer. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a fine documentary.] (F. Swietek)