#thepearlbutton

The following is a transcript of Nicholas Li’s radio review of Patricio Guzman’s The Pearl Button, screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year.

Cinema is a medium that can remind us with such gut wrenching ability just how insignificant we and our little blue marble are when compared to the rest of the universe. Guzman is devoted to making you feel human. The Pearl Button, the follow-up documentary to 2010’s critically acclaimed Nostalgia For The Light, is an experience of emotional immersion. The film’s value is obvious and it will leave an impression on you; it just might not be what the director wholly wanted.

The film explores the connection between the waters across Chile’s vast coastline and links them to the nation’s mistreatment of its indigenous inhabitants, as well its political prisoners during the dictatorship of 1973-1990. Along with water, space and the cosmos act as a central inspiration for the way the Indigenous model their lives. Audiences familiar with Nostalgia for the Light will be right at home watching this film; indeed Guzman himself has stated that it should be considered with Nostalgia in mind.

The film begins on the premise of understanding the value of water. There is a very spiritual element to Guzman’s storytelling, as he brings you in and out of nature and into long conversations with his subjects, suddenly and un-expectantly. From the indigenous, and the distant past, the film moves to the not so distant past, and various experts are interviewed to explain the role of the coastline as grave yard for political prisoners.

Immaculately shot, The Pearl Button is at its best when it plays on the senses. Stunning point of view scenes of Chile’s landscape are captivating and position you to feel as if you are one of the indigenous, rowing past ice glaciers and jagged cliff faces in a world which seems untouched by man. The orchestral soundtrack is highly appropriate, and brings to mind the delicacy of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in the best possible way. You can’t help but feel the blood pulsing through your chest as Guzman combines these spectacular images with lonely, expansive music and couples it with the sound of water falling on a tin roof, or with a gentle stream.

Yet, this touch of expertise is ultimately not quite matched by an ability to engage the audience in comprehending the historical depth of his subject matter. Australian audiences for the most part will be unfamiliar with the shocking and deplorable actions of the Chilean government, and Guzman’s work rightfully and importantly brings these issues to attention.

Guzman’s lethargic narration simply does not hit home in the way that a David Attenborough type can compel an audience. The cinematography of emotional and sensual immersion just doesn't correlate to an experience that is conducive to education – in one second the audience is thrown from the depths of space to the stagnant living room of an expert; (and) whilst these experts are certainly informed, they are not presented in a means that’s engaging.

Whilst moving, the film does not explain in a coherent manner that fundamental question of why these events happened. Ultimately The Pearl Button’s strengths highlight its weaknesses; it could have been so much more. 3 stars.