Cinema Releases - My Imaginary Country

My Imaginary Country

June 9th 2023

“October 2019, an unexpected revolution, a social explosion. One and a half million people demonstrated in the streets of Santiago for more democracy, a more dignified life, a better education, a better health system and a new Constitution. Chile had recovered its memory. The event I had been waiting for since my student struggles in 1973 finally materialized.”

Patricio Guzman

Week commencing 9 June

Dochouse at Curzon Bloomsbury	Brunswick Centre	London WC1N 1AW	08719 642838	all week
ICA Cinema	The Mall	London SW1Y 1BN	020 7930 3647	all week
Showroom	Paternoster Square	Sheffield S1 2BX	0114 275 7727	9-13 June
Chapter	Market Rd	Cardiff CF5 1QE	029 2030 4400	all week not 11th
GFT	12 Rose St	Glasgow G3 6RB	0141 332 6535	all week
HOME	2 Tony Wilson Place	Manchester M15 4FN	0161 200 1500	all week
Ciné Lumière	17 Queensberry Place	London SW7 2DW	020 7871 3515	all week
Depot	Pinwell Rd	Lewes BN7 2JS	01273 525534	all week
Barbican Cinema	Beech St	London EC2Y 8DS	020 7638 8891	all week

Curzon Home Cinema

Week commencing 16 June

Dochouse at Curzon Bloomsbury	Brunswick Centre	London WC1N 1AW	08719 642838	all week
ICA Cinema	The Mall	London SW1Y 1BN	020 7930 3647	all week
Ciné Lumière	17 Queensberry Place	London SW7 2DW	020 7871 3515	16 & 22 June
Watershed	1 Canon's Road	Bristol BS1 5TX	0117 927 5100	all week
Lexi	194b Chamberlayne Rd	London NW10 3JU	020 3011 5523	all week not 20 & 21st
Showroom	Paternoster Square	Sheffield S1 2BX	0114 275 7727	20-22nd Jun only
Docs Ireland - Odeon	1 Victoria Square	Belfast BT1 4QG	0333 014 4501	22nd only
Curzon Wimbledon	The Broadway	London SW19 1RE	08719 642838	all week (not 20)
Kino	3 Lion St	Rye TN31 7LB	01797 226293	all week (not 17)
Kino	Victoria Hall, Rye Rd	Hawkhurst TN18 4ET	01580 754321	18,19,22 June
BFI Player
Curzon Home Cinema

Week commencing 23 June

Dochouse at Curzon Bloomsbury	Brunswick Centre	London WC1N 1AW	08719 642838	25 & 28 June
ICA Cinema	The Mall	London SW1Y 1BN	020 7930 3647	23,24,29 June
Phoenix	4 Midland St	Leicester LE1 1TG	0161 242 2800	all week
Showroom	Paternoster Square	Sheffield S1 2BX	0114 275 7727	all week
Tyneside	10-12 Pilgrim St	Newcastle NE1 6QG	0191 227 5500	23-27 June
Warwick Arts Centre	Univ of Warwick	Coventry CV4 7AL	024 7649 6000	all week bar 26/27th
Ultimate Picture Palace	Jeune St, Cowley Rd	Oxford OX4 1BN	01865 245288	26th, 28th, 29th only
Pictureville	Science & Media Museum	Bradford BD1 1NQ	0330 058 0058	26th-28th only
Curzon Home Cinema
BFI Player

Week commencing 30 June

ICA Cinema	The Mall	London SW1Y 1BN	020 7930 3647	1st & 5th July
Tyneside	10-12 Pilgrim Square	Newcastle NE1 6QG	0191 227 5500	2nd, 5th,6th July
Pictureville	Science & Media Museum	Bradford BD1 1NQ	0330 058 0058	3rd & 5th July
DCA	152 Nethergate	Dundee DD1 4EA	01382 432444	30/6, 4 & 5 July
BFI Player
Curzon Home Cinema

From 7th July onwards

Chichester Cinema	New Park Rd	Chichester PO19 7XY	01243 786650	7th & 13th only
Aldeburgh Cinema	51 High St	Aldeburgh IP15 5AU	01728 454884	12th July
Aberystwyth Arts Centre	Gandy St	Aberystwyth	01392 667080	15,17,20 July
Picturehouse Discover		Ashford, Bath, Brighton (Komedia), Ritzy, Bromley, Cambridge, Cameo Edinburgh, Picturehouse Central, Clapham, Crouch End, East Dulwich, Exeter (Sat 8) Finsbury Park, Fulham Rd (Thu 13), Gate (Thu 13), Greenwich, Hackney, Henley (Wed 12), Liverpool, Norwich (Fri 7), Oxford, Southampton (Thu 13), Stratford East (Wed 12), West Norwood, York	01275 871 000	Tue 11th July
BFI Player
Curzon Home Cinema

From 14 July onwards

Curzon	46 Old Church Rd	Clevedon BS21 6NN	01275 871 000	29th July
Phoenix	Gandy St	Exeter EX4 3LS	01392 667080	15th, 17th & 20th only
BFI Player
Curzon Home Cinema

Patricio Guzmán Director

Filmography Selected

Patricio Guzmán was born in 1941 in Santiago de Chile. He studied at the “Official School of Cinematographic Art” in Madrid. He dedicates his career to documentary film. His work, presented at numerous festivals, is internationally recognised.

Between 1972 and 1979, he directed The Battle of Chile, a five-hour trilogy on the government of Salvador Allende and its fall. This film lays the foundations of his cinema. The North American magazine CINEASTE named it among “the ten best political films in the world”.

After Pinochet's coup, he was arrested and locked up for two weeks in the National Stadium, where he was repeatedly threatened with mock executions.

In 1973, he left Chile and settled in Cuba, then in Spain and France, but remained very attached to his country and its history. He chairs the International Documentary Festival in Santiago de Chile (FIDOCS), which he created in 1997.

The Cordillera of Dreams presented in the official selection at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, closes a trilogy that began with Nostalgia of the Light (Cannes 2010) and The Pearl Button (Berlin 2015). His new film, My Imaginary Country, was selected for the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

2022		MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY

2019		THE CORDILLERA OF DREAMS

2015		THE PEARL BUTTON

2010		NOSTALGIA OF LIGHT

2005		MY JULES VERNE

2004		SALVADOR ALLENDE

2001		THE PINOCHET CASE

1997		CHILE, THE Stubborn MEMORY

1992		THE SOUTHERN CROSS

1995		THE BARRIERS OF SOLITUDE

1987		IN THE NAME OF GOD

1983		THE ROSE OF THE WIND
1972-1979		THE BATTLE OF CHILE I-II-III

"A galvanising film...The aftermath of the September 2022 plebiscite on the redrafted constitution, which saw 62 per cent of voters reject the proposed changes, may temporarily slow down the filmmaker's hopes that "the country we imagined will become reality. But in 2023, as the country begins a new constitution-writing process, the momentum that Guzmán identifies, with women at its core, drives a powerful vision for Chile."
Maria Delgado, Sight & Sound

★★★★
"Staggering documentary...examines popular protest that swept through Chile in 2019, when hundreds of thousands of people - chiefly young women - took to the streets of Santiago. Patricio Guzmán's movies about Chile's dark night of the national soul in this era have had a fierce poetry...through documentaries such as Nostalgia for the Light in 2010 and The Cordillera of Dreams in 2019. This movie supplies a moving endpoint to the tragic sequence of work which Guzmán has created."
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

★★★★
"Momentous...at once vivid, kinetic, hope-filled and haunted.
Eloquent photography...an elegant, unfussy structure makes room for the micro alongside the macro.
Extraordinary drone shots capture the sheer number of people involved in the estallido, city avenues turned to rivers of humanity.
A frozen image of a point in time; a graceful snapshot of change in motion."
Danny Leigh, The Financial Times

★★★★
"Documents a new kind of grassroots protest, one in which every participant is also a citizen journalist; in which police and army atrocities are captured by a hundred phone cameras. The message is ultimately one of hope: for Chileans this time at least, protest has resulted in real and meaningful changes."
Wendy Ide,The Observer

★★★★★
"Urgent. Compelling. Stunning."
Dan Carrier,Islington Tribune/Camden New Journal/West End Extra

★★★★
Unlike many films charting waves of protest, this one has a hopeful sweep, with the prospect of a new progressive constitution within touching distance even if the rejection of the first attempt last year suggests there are still plenty of those stones on the road ahead."
Amber Wilkinson, Eye For Film

★★★★
"From Chile's master documentary filmmaker...the film's vision comes alive with a real sense of hope about the soul of Chile and its thirst for change that's palpable, not imaginary. The scenes of feminist protest chant, "A rapist in your path," being performed are unforgettable."
Marina Ashioti, Little White Lies

★★★★
"A very highly charged and emotional documentary which provides a snapshot of people power and what it can achieve..."
Maria Duarte, The Morning Star

★★★★
"It provides a fascinating in-the-moment of how a social movement arises from root demands...As a record of a country at a major crossroads, this is captivating stuff."
Feder Tot, We Love Cinema

★★★★
"Patricio Guzmán tirelessly continues to bear witness to the transformations of his country and its population...creates intimate connections through the use of tight camera work and overhead drone footage, honouring the women of all ages who led the uprising and guided the nation to not only a new constitution, but to a new democracy.
Camila E. Sotomayor, Movies1

★★★★
"Passionate. As one would expect from a filmmaker of Guzmán's experience, My Imaginary Country is well assembled."
Mansel Stimpson,Film Review Daily

"While this is a first-person documentary, with the director providing voice-over narration, it expresses a poignant humility and a patient willingness to listen."
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"Celebrates the children of the revolution...organically comprehensive and elegantly galvanizing."
Carlos Aguilar, THE WRAP

“Despite all the sorrow from the ever-present trauma of young lives lost or permanently scarred, “My Imaginary Country” drips with the contagious thrill of hope... it is hard not to be moved.”
Rafaela Sales Ross, T HE PLAYLIST

“Guzman’s heart and soul investment in the film and the snapshots of people power in action make for an emotional and involving documentary.”
Allan Hunter, SCREEN International

“It’s a vindication, not just for the nation, but for its most clear-eyed, full-hearted chronicler. Would that all countries were so lucky as to have a Patricio Guzmán, to help with the painful process of recovering what has been lost and, as with “My Imaginary Country,” occasionally to celebrate what has been gained.”
Jessica Kiang, VARIETY

“With civil liberties in America under attack, those willing to fight to keep the liberties we have in place could learn a thing or two from the Patricio Guzmán documentary My Imaginary Country.”
Valerie Comkplex, DEADLINE

"Compelling. Urgent and topical, My Imaginary Country features harrowing front-line protest...Reflective but not oveerbearing, Guzmán gets out of the way of his subjects, ceding the spotlight to new generations and marvelling at their good works."
Nicolas Rapold, THE FINANCIAL TIMES

"It's a stirring film, of a movement that the director believes "altered the soul of Chile. The film combines on-the-ground footage and staggering aerial shots of the demonstrations and riots."
Demetrious Mattheou, THE ARTS DESK

Top ^

Director/Writer	Patricio Guzmán
Director of Photography	Samuel Lahu
Editor	Laurence Manheimer
Music	Miranda y Tobar
Sound	Juan Carlos Maldonado Dubo, Aymeric Duras
Producer	Renate Sachse (Atacama Productions)
Co-Producers	Olivier Père - ARTE France Cinéma (France)
	Alexandra Galvis - Market Chile
Executive Producer	Benjamin Lanlard
Financial Partners	CNC, ARTE Cinéma, ARTE TV,
	Creative Media Europe, Region Île de France,
	Consejo Nacional de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio (Chile)

	Chile/France 2022 / 83 mins / 5.1 / 1:1.85