Spanish with English subtitles
With Paulina García, Diego Ruiz, Iván Álvarez de Araya, Tamara Ferreira, Catalina Aguayo, Robert Scott, Santiago Meneghello
A coming of age story, I Am From Chile draws from the director’s personal experiences to tell a different kind of immigration story.
I Am from Chile is the story of Salvador, who moves to London from Chile to study English and travel around Europe at his parents’ expense. He stays with his aunt María (acclaimed Chilean actress Paulina García of Gloria, Illiterate), who makes a rather decent living renting the rooms of her house to other immigrants. But when a financial crisis back home leaves Salvador with no resources of his own, he has no other choice but to make ends meet with the help of María and his roommates (including a Russian drug dealer and his Japanese girlfriend), taking on a series of short-term, and at times, dangerous jobs. Difficult and challenging situations will force Salvador out of his protected bourgeois reality and into the real world.
Press
“Paulina Garcia gives another great performance as Maria, and Diego Ruiz, who played Salvador, won special mention at the Festival Cine de Punta del Este. Recommended.” – Elena Landry, George Mason Libraries, EMRO
Notes on Film
I lived in London for four years. During that time, I got to know the lives of young Latin American immigrants, who are in constant search of opportunities. I also experienced the feeling of living far from home, getting used to a completely different culture and, at the same time, gaining some personal insight.
Salvador, the film’s protagonist, guides the audience along a coming of age narrative. Upon arrival in London, he finds himself in several dilemmas, the most important being his need to find a job to make ends meet, that forces him to grow and mature.
María copes with her family’s failure through drinking, revealing an extroverted and joyful side to her personality, but one that doesn’t help her improve her current situation.
Happiness, sadness, deception, frustration, love… the characters experience countless emotions throughout the film, which doesn’t aim to do more than share a point of view and entertain the spectator in its 108 minutes.
