Nostalgia for the Light

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There are 5 star reviews left, right and centre for this uniquely poetic Chilean documentary. Yet, for some reason, I don't share the same enthusiasm that everyone else presents. That is not to say that I disliked it, I just think it may be a little over-indulgent of the link between the two avenues the film explores.

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I certainly can't argue that the film is not unique. It is filled with poetic description and transcendent comparison between the universal search for 'how our world began' through astrophysics and the search for human remains in the Atacama desert following the Pinochet regime. The film follows the work of astronomers alongside their desert companions - the women who search for the remains of their loved ones, sifting tragically through dirt for traces of bone and mummified human body parts - all in the hope that they may find some closure in discovery. The film also explores how both parties became thwarted victims of the Pinochet regime, as Chileans became slaves of the desert and their only escape, astronomy, was banned as authorities believed that prisoners could escape by following the stars.

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The themes of loss, longing and hope are ones that are present from start to finish but I feel that impact is lost in favour of unnecessary poetry.  The first 35minutes of the film is purely narrated, with lingering images of inanimate objects, landscape and ordinate machinery. There is a single contributor, who does not offer much by way of insight, that our narrator has not already inferred. I feel that the opening to the film indulges too much in suggestive meaning, without at first setting the scene as to why the search that these people dedicate their lives to, is so important. This first half of the film left me searching for meaning amidst a desert of description and I was left willing for some let-up in the narration to rest my heavy eyelids.

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Finally at 40minutes in, we were relieved of duty and were allowed into the story of the 'people' over the 'poetry'. We are allowed into the lives of those who survived the regime: of an architect who memorised the layout of the camps, of a young astronomer, of a female astronomer whose parents disappeared under the regime, of the women who search endlessly through the sand. We are finally given that insight into why all of this imagery matters so much and it moves us. It's just a shame that it took us so long to get there.

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The film is unique in the way that it presents its interviews too. Director Patricio Guzman does not conform to common interview edit practice. Instead he allows the responses to come naturally. There are no cuts to shorten responses, no cutaways to take us away from the people - the film's slow pace finally syncs with it's contributors allowing us the time to evaluate their words and be moved by their passion. I think THE moment of the film for me was when we meet the elderly women who speak of their search for their relatives. There is no need for elaborate name-straps to identify who these women are, we know immediately. 70yr old Violeta Berrios, moved me to tears as she is asked, 'will you carry on searching?' and answers, 'for as long as I can'. She conveys so passionately how people ask her 'why we want bones...I want them so much...If I found him today and I were to die tomorrow, I would die happy. But I don't want to die. I don't want to die before I find him'. She is remarkable. The edit does not eliminate her contemplation, questioning, passion or repetition, adding to its complete emotional authenticity.

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The cinematography of the film shares it's moments of beauty also. In a desert, I would think it is quite the challenge to find unique and interesting shots of the vastness of endless sand but Guzman manages it well, merging it with shots of surviving concentration camp buildings, that are believed to have held approximately 300,000 people over the years of the regime (1973-1990). In 2011 the Chilean government recognised that over 35,000 of its people survived political imprisonment and torture - and that's just those who survived. The numbers are too large to comprehend and the secrecy surrounding where the remains of those killed during this time ended up, is still very much the norm. Slow panning shots of walls of the victims, clever editing between shots of the moon's surface and of imperfect human skulls, starry skies and sandy dunes, act as haunting reminders of the devastation of the past that continues into Chile's present. I will say that the stationary portrait shots seemed a little forced but with the poetic tone of the film, we manage to fill in the gaps ourselves.

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And so, for 90mins we have immersed ourselves in the slow and constant search for answers in the Atacama Desert. Poetry allows a tone that the stories of its contributors respond to. Although I believe that the first half of the film was unnecessarily long and over-indulgent, I feel that I appreciated the second half of it more, having sat through it. I do not believe that 'Nostalgia for the Light' is as masterful, nor as remarkable as other reviews have deemed it but that is certainly not to say that it has no value at all. It is painfully truthful and hopelessly unending, reflecting the torment that those within film face every single day. It is a memorial to those who were lost, and a tribute to those who carry on searching.

Kid Criminals

As Channel 4 titles go, 'Kid Criminals' is a relatively loose term. It is certainly better than the Daily Mail's headline of 'Inside the Prison for Teenage Paedophiles', which is almost completely detrimental to the message portrayed by the programme.

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'Kid Criminals' is all about rehabilitation in an Indiana prison, it's about erasing an action that may otherwise, destroy these kid's futures. Although, perhaps that in itself is a bit of an oxymoron, as deleting a prison sentence on paper, certainly doesn't hold up against this televised admittance of their crimes.

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Despite the confused ethics of the programme itself, it was well-made, with the young contributors proving extremely self-aware throughout. 'Kid Criminals' learned to play on our morals more than once. We learned to sympathise with the kids, learned how teaching over punishment is favourable and how, in most cases, it works. The show provides the figure of 10% as the rate of re-offence, whereas in the UK, where the scheme is to punish rather than to rehabilitate, the rate is at almost 80%. So is this the way forward? Should we aim to understand those we call monsters, and work with them, rather than against them? According to the evidence here, yes, we should.

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After episode 1 focused solely on the kids detained for sexual crimes, I expected there to be a thematic transition into episode 2. In ep. 2 however, I feel the programme took a nose dive. They could have separated girls and boys, they could have carried on with themed offences, but instead they only bothered to draw differences between 'kids who fight' and 'cho-mo's which I feel is not helpful for the kids on either programme and is not empathetic to the range of crimes from offenders in episode 2 either.

It felt a little rushed, and there were so many stories crammed in to Episode 2 that it was a little hard to keep up. We had no time to really connect with any of them. Episode 1 was far better than episode 2 because we were given the time to understand our characters and explore the way they came to terms with their crimes. We learned to like them.

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For example, we meet Clutter - who is halfway through his rehab programme that has helped him to leave behind ordeals like being shut in a washing machine by his father. He is clearly smart and often takes up the role of advisor to other inmates. We learn to like him quickly, as we watch him smile at his mother's encouragement, which makes it difficult to comprehend his crime. 

We also meet McNair, also 14yrs old and Clutter's cellmate. We watch as he finds it difficult to share with others what he has done. He finds it hard to forgive himself, and progress in dealing with his feelings. We watch him as he seems to vanish in his thoughts and we will him to complete his programme and wipe his slate clean - is this the future of rehabilitation, do we really take on the Indiana state initiative and 'forgive those who trespass against us'?

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I liked the idea of the two-part series, but in practice, themes were an issue and the structure of the two programmes could have been better. It is a really interesting approach to rehabilitation and I think we could have stretched to more air-time to really reflect the success of the prison programme. It did go further than ITV's 'Kids Behind Bars' though, in showing us something we DIDN'T know. I just wanted more.

You can watch the programme for yourself at 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kid-criminals