Historia y Sociedad (Jul 2014)
The representation of repression, suffering and pain of the Chilean people. Film, exile and politics: the case of the film "Il pleut sur Santiago", by Helvio Soto Soto (1975
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between film and history and the representation of history in films, using for the study the film production of Chileans in exile through an analysis of the particular case of the film Raining on Santiago, filmed in France and Bulgaria and directed by filmmaker Helvio Soto in 1975. The article reports on the double functionality of this film: it represents a historical event and becomes the expression of identity in exile. This film has a political function since it is at the service of a political cause. In addition, the film tried to become a method of documentation, education, information and denouncing of what was happening in Chile. Hence, this production responded to the imagery of the filmmakers and became a historical record and a valuable documentary source that allows us to enter the ideological aspects of the exiled filmmakers and their intention to appeal to rebuild ties between the social and the political ¿crushed by the dictatorship¿ in order to help the reconfiguration of the collective memory of the Chilean left.
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