1976

In 1976 in Chile, Carmen heads off to her beach house to supervise its renovation. Her husband, children and grandchildren come back and forth during the winter vacation. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to.

Week commencing 24th March 

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Manuela has participated in more than 15 films as an actress. In 2010, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a Masters in Film at Temple University, U.S.A. Apnea, her first short film, premiered at FIC Valdivia, in 2014. She was also selected by Cannes Directors' Fortnight’s programme Chile Factory to co-direct a short film with Amirah Tajdin, called Land Tides, which premiered at the Fortnight, in 2015. Her debut film 1976 was also selected by Cannes Directors' Fortnight’s programme.

Filmography

Marina Ashioti, Little White Lies

★★★★
"An oblique, suggestive exploration of the times...
Though the real horror remains offstage...Küppenheim is terrific as a glossily numb and stifled matriarch finding some surreptitious adventure in the world of the resistance.
Stephen Troussé, Uncut magazine

★★★★
"Actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli's brilliant character study immerses viewers in the paranoid political landscape of 1970"s Chile. This worried obsession also materialises in Mariá Portugal's arresting sound design. The eerie, anxiety-inducing soundtrack is realised with odd-timed whistles and brilliantly disturbing electronic waves...
Emily Maskell, We-Love-Cinema

★★★★
"An edge-of-your-seat thriller that flawlessly captures the look and feel of its setting while maintaining taut suspense throughout, 1976 marks a bold debut from Manuela Martelli."
Andrew Murray, The Upcoming

"The kind of elliptical political drama in which Latin cinema excels, containing its threat in the corners of recesses of the action, slowly building an atmoshphere of tensian and fear. As a young actress in 2004, Martelli appeared in the landmark Chilean film Machuca, which foucussed on the early days of the coup: with her first film as a director, she's reutrned to the subject with thrilling style and intelligence."
Demetrios Matheou, The Arts Desk

★★★★
“The thing that makes 1976 stand out most from other films in its vein is the female aspect. One might even say this is in part where the ambiguity of the character stems from Carmen’s story is thus a truly female story, told by Martelli and other women with an understanding of its emotions that a male director could never achieve.
“Excellently told and acted political thriller. Küppenheim’s performance in the central role is a perfect mixture of confidence and unease.”
Marc van de Klashorst,International Cinephile Society

“An impressive and moving debut from actor turned director Manuela Martelli offers a subtle, unobtrusive evocation of Chile in the 1970s.
The blend of character study, Hitchcockian intrigue and an excellent central performance from Aline Kuppenheim makes for a tensely involving tale.”
Allan Hunter, Screen

“A gripping Pinochet-era drama directed by Manuela Martelli… the buzzed up title represents the first feature from young Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, star of Andrés Wood’s “Machuca” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro.”

“1976,” a Cannes buzz title, garnered three top awards at the Toulouse Latin American Festival’s Films in Progress, including the pix-in-post competition’s Grand Prix and Cine Plus Award from Canal Plus.”
Holly Jones, Variety

“Ratchets up the tension…Manuela Martelli”s feature debut, 1976, explores one woman’s struggle with misogyny and corruption under Pinochet.
“Equal parts character study and taut political drama. Martelli and Moffat build tension by keeping the audience guessing when (or if) the other shoe will drop as Carmen’s fate becomes more intertwined with Elías’s.”
Linday Pugh, Seventh Row

“Manuela Martelli’s absorbing drama”Kuppenheim is captivating as Carmen, letting the occasional emotion through a steely facade, and when information is passed from one character to another at great personal cost, every expression and every intricate detail Martelli and crew invest in “1976” feels invaluable.”
Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest

"Manuela Martelli’s tale of Pinochet’s dictatorship from a female POV (is)a period piece about the daily life of a leisured mother scored with ‘70s synthesizers’ anticipating horror. The jarring music underscores sense of dissonance between Carmen’s public persona and private self as she awakes to the contemporary reality of Chile.
“Genre tropes seep into the film. There’s an echo of French “polar” crime thrillers – think Jean-Pierre Melville – in Carmen’s car journeys, and the story of principled outsider battling far larger odds, but rarely portraying their feelings, as the films builds to grim reckoning."
Emmanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7

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