• Valdivia Int'l Film Festival

    Best National Film
  • Palm Springs Int'l Film Festival

  • CinéLatino Toulouse Int'l Film Festival

    Audience Award, Student Prize, Special Mention
  • Göteborg Film Festival

    Bergman Debut Award Nominee
  • Guadalajara Int'l Film Festival

  • Fecich – Festival de Cine Chileno

    Best Picture, Best direction, Best Actor
  • FEMCINE Santiago Women's Film Festival

  • Seattle Int'l Film Festival

  • AFI Latin American Film Festival

Spanish Film Club
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Spanish, Mapuche with English subtitles

With Andrew Bargsted, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Eliseo Fernández

Rebellious Tano is sent from Santiago to Southern Chile under the custody of his father whom he has not seen in years. In his new school, he meets Cheo, a shy boy who gets bullied for his indigenous origins.

The two outsiders start a friendship and together, they learn how to brave their difficulties: while Tano becomes less angry, Cheo finds strength in claiming his identity. Their involvement in the struggle with the Mapuche community will transform them.

A reflection of the ongoing Mapuche conflict portrayed through the friendship and solidarity of two pure souls, as well as the analysis of social prejudices, unspoken family stories, and the daily violent routine of a community threatened by local big business and government methods of eviction.

Press

“An honest and simple film in its dramatic structure but powerful and solid in terms of what it tells and the ability to take advantage of the director's knowledge and expertise on the subject. In this reinforcement Huaiquimilla leaves his point of view, but without leaving aside his own Mapuche origin, on the contrary, claiming it even more.” – Rolando Gallego, Escribiendocine

“A heartfelt call to arms touching both heart and conscience.”Palm Spring Int'l Film Festival

About the Director
Claudia Huaiquimilla is a Mapuche director, scriptwriter, and producer. She has taught film and screenwriting at the Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile, and Escuela de Cine. Her first short film Saint John’s Eve (2013) was awarded at Clermont Ferrand. Contextualized in the Mapuche conflict, she writes and directs her first feature film Bad Influence (2016), winner of 40 awards and was released in commercial cinemas in Chile and France. My Brothers Dream Awake is her second feature film.

Huaiquimilla is currently co-directing and co-writing the first Netflix original series in Chile, 42 Days In The Dark.

Notes on Film

Bad Influence because maybe I was considered that way at some point by my family for not being adequate to the expected patterns, and also because I suffered discrimination for being indigenous. I suffered a lot of discrimination. When you are a child, you are “the Indian” and you are bullied. And when you are older, you are a terrorist. Then you can be a danger in a job. You raise your voice loudly and that is not always very well seen, especially in a woman.

I was very interested to see when children or adolescents are labeled as problems. It is not that one is born bad, but that it has to do with the consequences of upbringing, of the environment that touched one. I believe that it is in childhood, the first five years of life, where all the things one lives, traumas or good experiences, determine many of the decisions we make later in life. Sometimes we do not understand why something affects us, and that is the explanation, at this moment.”

– Claudia Huaiquimilla, Director