Films
Comparison route: /completedfilms-fixed
Synopsis
Mariana (42) is part of that Chilean upper class that takes privilege for granted. Despised by both her father and her husband, she feels a strange attraction towards her riding teacher, Juan (60), a former colonel suspected of human rights abuses during the dictatorship. But their offending affair cracks through the invisible walls that protect her family from the past.
- Screenplay:
- Marcela Said
- Cinematography:
- Georges Lechaptois
- Sound:
- Boris Herrera Allende
- Edit:
- Jean de Certeau
- Music:
- Grégoire Auger
- Cast:
- Zegers Antonia, Alfredo Castro, Sieveking Akejandro, Spregelburd Rafael, Marcial Tagle
Gallery
Director's statement
When I made "Mariana", I wanted to explore how the legacy of dictatorship lingers within Chile’s privileged circles. Through the story of a wealthy woman who becomes entangled with her riding instructor—an ex-military officer accused of human rights crimes—I examined the uneasy coexistence of desire, denial, and historical guilt. I was interested in how intimacy can blur moral clarity, especially within environments shaped by silence and protection. The film ultimately exposes how complicity often hides behind comfort, and how confronting the past demands more than acknowledgment—it requires personal rupture. Through Mariana’s awakening, I sought to question loyalty, responsibility, and inherited blindness.