No eran nadie

We are in today’s Chile, on a few islands in the south of the country.
Chia, who works in a cannery, goes from island to island looking for her partner, a fisherman, future father of her son, who mysteriously disappeared while he was at sea with his boat.
During the traditional celebration of Jesus of Nazareth, where you can find all the residents of a village, Chia finds out the truth.
On the boat to get back, she meets a young girl, who she takes with her and gets friend with another woman, Malva. She is a teacher in Santiago and tells her that her son was imprisoned four years before and she chose to believe he is dead rather than imagine his pain.
After that journey, Chia gets on a dinghy and goes away towards her island. She will give birth to her son and will go back to her job, without any hope of escape from the same destiny of every other woman on the islands.
During this crossing, some visions arise: the past mixes up with the present, colour with black and white, reality with lyricism. All of this to remind, as through a fairytale, the traces of the disappeared ones and, at the same time, the daily life of “those who are nothing”.
Created with improvised tools, this film was shot in different stops between 1980 and 1981, in the inner Chiloé Islands. The production ended in France, in collaboration with the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

At the moment, nobody does anything to allow cinema to properly grow. There is nothing left of what could be the cinema heritage of the country, cinema schools were shut down and films were regularly destroyed, apart from those loved by the regime in charge. The business is reduced to the creation of advertisings films. It’s a dark time for Chilean culture, which is going through the worst crisis of its history: freedom of speech, whatever the ideology of the work, can’t exist anymore, after the introduction of prior restraint.
After living for a few years under a military dictatorship and after a few attempts to make independent cinema live again, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only possible thing was to experiment with personal projects. The alternative would be shooting conformist films or fighting to face reality.
It’s impossible to accept, without saying a word, the pain that our people had to feel, people who lost many dear ones. With the money from the sale of my house and some more help of the Foundation for the Development of Chiloé, I could shoot the film in 1980-1981.
“Because, deep in my heart, I convinced myself, to keep calm, that my son wasn’t alive anymore”, tells Malva when Chia is still looking for Audelio, her partner who is dead. “They were nothing”: they were all men.
This film is a message of the strong faith and great will of Chilean women: they have enough strength to overcome the pain inflicted to their country.
Sergio Bravo-Ramos
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Director and screenplay: Sergio BravoRamos.
Dialogues: Juan Radrigan.
Testimonianza: Malva Hernandez.
Director of photography: S. Ivan Bravo (16mm, colore e bianco e nero).
Poesia: "Todos los hombres" di Pablo Neruda.
Music: Angel Parra/Pablo Neruda.
Montaggio immagini: Sonia Salgado, Sergio Bravo.
Montaggio suoni: Anita Perez, Gabrielle Zubovic.
Mixage: André Siekiersky.
Cast and characters: Rebecca Garrido (la Chia), Mards Gonzalez (Malva Hernandez), Patricia Levinanco (la Chinda), Eric Barria (Audelio Cardenas), M. Benaida Unquen (la Suertera), Pedro Hueicha (Hueicha), gli abitanti delle isole dell'arcipelago interno di Chiloé.
Production company: Popol Vuh con la partecipazione dell'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (Parigi), la Fondazione per lo Sviluppo del Chiloé FUNDECHI (Cile), il Centro de Cine Experimental (Cile).