CLFF #2: Isla Negra

Hello lovely readers! Last night I watched a double feature all about settler colonialism; heavy, I know, but a strong reminder that from Chile to Palestine and across multitudes of other countries and communities, displacement and genocide persists.

I wanted to dispatch both movies I watched last night—Isla Negra at the Chicago Latino Film Festival and Passing Dreams at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, but circumstances came up. So, today, please enjoy my review of Isla Negra, and look out for a jam-packed dispatch of my remaining weekend watches tomorrow.

Isla Negra
Directed by Jorge Riquelme Serrano

Chile 🇨🇱

Isla Negra is named for the real-life Chilean coastal community (and frequent tourist destination) within El Quisco that was once home to poet Pablo Neruda among other poets. Naturally, this history and the attractiveness of the coast makes that land valuable, and while the particular reasons for Isla Negra's development value are absent from the film, real estate profiteer Guillermo's (Alfredo Castro) desire to repurpose the land for luxury apartments becomes the impetus for a twist on the home invasion thriller.

Jorge Riquelme Serrano keeps the world of the film small, focused on five characters (and really, two couples) at opposite ends of the class spectrum. Though Guillermo's companion Carmen (Paulina Urrutia) is his employee, she is more than happy to partake in the abundance that hooking up with Guillermo provides. Meanwhile, in a tent literally below Guillermo's decadent vacation home right at the vulnerability of the coast lives Jacob (Gastón Salgado), his wife Marcela (Marcela Salinas), and his father Miguel (José Soza). The trio have lost their family home, having been evicted to make way for Guillermo's apartments, and now are doing their best to survive as Miguel's health rapidly declines.

What initially begins as a plea for a kind gesture—asking Carmen and Guillermo to open their doors for the ailing Miguel on his last day—turns into a slow-simmering thriller. Jacob and Marcela won't be evicted again unless they can have their original home back and continue the traditions that have existed within their community for decades, if not longer. Sure enough, Guillermo ain't the type of guy to budge.

The initial thought experiment of Isla Negra is interesting: The movie challenges the viewer to consider "home invasion" in various forms. Sure, Jacob and Marcela might be a threatening presence to their wealthier counterparts, but is them refusing to leave Guillermo's home any different than what he's done to them? Unfortunately, the premise wears thin and comes close to repeating this metaphor in different terms over and over again. That said, I've long said that I think some movies really come alive when presented in a double feature, and I think one could be enriched by a pairing between Felipe Gálvez Haberle's fantastic 2023 film The Settlers and Isla Negra—two tense films that give you 100+ years of Chilean history that is destined to repeat itself. ❀

Be good to each other, and look out for more tomorrow. Toodles!