The Chilean Building

Macarena Aguiló, working with co-director Susana Foxley, reflects on her experience as a Chilean exile during the Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s in this eye-opening documentary. Aguiló also speaks with others who shared her situation, while family photographs, home movies, and drawings bring the era to life. The daughter of revolutionary parents, “Maca” begins with the story of her kidnapping as a child by the secret police. Upon her release, Maca was sent by her grandmother to live with her exiled mother in Paris. But in the late-1970s, the MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement) encouraged their members, who were united against General Pinochet's repressive regime, to return to Chile surreptitiously, so Maca ended up in Project Homes, a French commune filled with 20 foster parents and 60 children. Although Maca and her mother exchanged correspondence, Maca formed a second family with a "social father" and "social siblings," who played, sang, and created lifelong friendships. Their journey continued in Cuba in the titular building, where they received a formal education and played a bigger role in their community. Some kids, however, went to boarding school, which led to the eventual fragmentation of the collective endeavor. For many, this would be more traumatic than leaving their parents, who constantly faced the threat of imprisonment, torture, and death. Because Aguiló interviewed dozens of her peers, she ends up presenting a balanced perspective on events, free from either bitterness or rosy-hued delusion. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)