Night Over Chile

IFFR 2024

Focus: Chile in the Heart

90'
Chile
1977

Fleeing Chile for the USSR, Sebastián Alarcón had quite a remarkable career. First he went to the all-union film school VGIK and then he was employed by Mosfilm where he mainly made gutsy, popular anti-Pinochet movies until the dictator's fall.

Night Over Chile is his feature film debut, he was teamed up with a slightly more experienced – and local – director, Aleksandr Kosarev, one of the many remarkable craftsmen of Soviet cinema. The story is a classic: politically disinterested architect Manuel is arrested and imprisoned at the National Stadium. He sees Santiago de Chile in turmoil, is abused by his guards, witnesses mass executions – all while trying to find someone with authority to whom he can explain that he has no business being there. The cycles of abuse and violence, especially the sacrifice of a communist called Juan, turn Manuel into a resistance fighter – like many Chileans. Night Over Chile is arguably the most hard-hitting, relentless early vision of Chile right after the coup.

To add more realism, Alarcón and Kosarev use a lot of gritty documentary material. There's a good reason why the film became quite famous: it's engaging and effective.

– Olaf Möller

Sebastián Alarcón, Aleksandr Kosarev

IFFR 2024

Focus: Chile in the Heart

90'
Chile
1977

Directors: Sebastián Alarcón, Aleksandr Kosarev
Countries of production: Chile, Soviet Union
Year: 1977
Festival Edition: IFFR 2024
Length: 90'
Medium: DCP
Original title: Ночь над Чили
Language: Russian
Production Company: Mosfilm Cinema Concern
Sales: Mosfilm Cinema Concern
Screenplay: Sebastián Alarcón, Sergei Mukhin
Cinematography: Christian Valdez, Vyacheslav Syomin
Music: Patricio Castillo
Cast: Grigore Grigoriu, Bakhram Akramov, Nartay Begalin

Directors: Sebastián Alarcón, Aleksandr Kosarev
Countries of production: Chile, Soviet Union
Year: 1977
Festival Edition: IFFR 2024
Length: 90'
Medium: DCP
Original title: Ночь над Чили
Language: Russian
Production Company: Mosfilm Cinema Concern
Sales: Mosfilm Cinema Concern
Screenplay: Sebastián Alarcón, Sergei Mukhin
Cinematography: Christian Valdez, Vyacheslav Syomin
Music: Patricio Castillo
Cast: Grigore Grigoriu, Bakhram Akramov, Nartay Begalin

Programme IFFR 2024

Focus: Chile in the Heart

After the coup against the democratically elected government of Chile and the murder of the nation’s president, Salvador Allende, on September 11th 1973, masses of Chileans fled the country for unknown futures far away. In 1974, spearheaded by works like Sergio Castilla’s Pinochet: fascista, asesino, traidor, agente del imperialismo and Raúl Ruiz’s Dialogue d’exilés, a historically unique phenomenon started to take shape: a Chilean cinema in exile. The vast majority of Chile’s film culture had left and were now living spread across different nations, this included already established auteurs like Patricio Guzmán (The Battle Of Chile (Part 1): The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie), Miguel Littin (Actas de Marusia) and Helvio Soto (La triple muerte del tercer personaje) as well as film students like Sebastián Alarcón (Night Over Chile), Leo Mendoza (Reír o no reír) or Luis Mora (Night of the Captain). Remarkably enough, the resulting production forms a coherent whole: it continues the Chilean cinema of the Unidad Popular, and protests against the fascism at home – while often presenting Chile as but an example for the forms of oppression and terrorism found all over the world. In an age where ever more filmmakers are forced into exile and whole communities are violently displaced, IFFR presents a grand overview of the phenomenon on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. We’ll present some twenty-five features and shorts covering the first decade of production in exile, mixing established classics with shorts and television works hardly seen since their original presentation.