Huaiquimilla’s film is a worthy if dogged dramatisation of the events leading to a fire in the juvenile remand centre of Puerto Montt, where ten young adults died. The closing titles also refer to the more than a thousand others who have died whilst within the system. The movie recounts the story from the point of view of the young adults, focusing on a pair of sympathetic brothers who don’t appear to deserve to be locked up. Perhaps one of the weaker elements of the film is that all the kids are excessively likeable, so the logic behind why they have ended up where they have, and the social conditions within Chile which lead to its youth being locked up, aren’t explored, in spite of the use of occasional flashbacks. Whilst the lead character, Angel, is known as the poet, and his brother Franco, (known as Pulga or Flea, a Messi reference) has dreams of playing for Barcelona, the edges of these characters feel as though they have been ironed out in the script, which veers towards the functional. The film has received support from various International Film Labs, and there is more than a suggestion of the construction of a vision which meets Western requirements of Latin American stories, no matter how well acted and authentic the film feels.
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