July begins with a big announcement for Chilean cinema! Claudia Huaiquimilla will premiere her highly anticipated second film, My Brothers Dream Awake at the Locarno Film Festival in the Cineasti del presente Official Competition.
Huaiquimilla has positioned herself as one of the most powerful emerging voices in Chilean cinema. Her first feature Bad Influence (2016) premiered in Palm Springs and received awards at festivals like Toulouse, Havana, and Guadalajara. In addition it obtained two nominations for the Platino Awards (2018) and commercial distribution in France.
In her new film, Huaiquimilla once again poetically and sensitively weaves together a sharp social critique, stirring powerful reflections and dialogue while approaching a universal problem: the reality of juvenile detention centers.
In this new cinematic proposal, we can see faces that appeared in Bad Influence, such as Andrew Bargsted and Sebastián Ayala, and new members of her filmic universe, where an outstanding performance by Paulina García (Gloria, Sebastián Lelio) will leave no one indifferent.
HUAIQUIMILLA’S DARING FILMIC PROPOSAL, INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS
My Brothers Dream Awake shows the reality of two brothers, Ángel and Franco, who have spent a year as inmates at a juvenile prison. Despite the difficulties, they have formed a solid group of friends with whom they pass the time, sharing dreams of freedom. Everything changes when the arrival of a young rebel offers a possible escape: the only passage to making those dreams a reality.
Inspired by a true story that took place in the South of Chile, the film delves into the reality of thousands of children that are part of the National Minor Service (Sename, for its Spanish acronym), one of the most controversial state institutions of recent years due to its lack of legal procedures, care, and protection of the minors under its custody.
Huaquimilla’s daring proposal reflects on the social dynamics within these juvenile centers, with her usual detail-oriented gaze that takes a deep dive into the bonds of brotherhood between the characters, pondering freedom, fragility, and the beauty of everyday life despite crushing inequality.
TALENTED PRODUCERS: MARIANA TEJOS AND PABLO GREENE
The selection of My Brothers Dream Awake to Locarno is a continuation of Chilean cinema’s big return to the international scene, which marked a strong presence throughout June in festivals that include Málaga, Toulouse, Annecy, and Tribeca.
The film doesn’t only put Claudia’s talent on display, but also that of her executive producer Mariana Tejos (Enigma, San Sebastián 2018), and executive producer and screenwriter Pablo Greene (Bad Influence, 2016).
“After showing our prior film Bad Influence at several SENAME centers, we met a lot of young people whose stories of injustice inspired this film, and we believe that using cinema as a starting point we can visibilize these stories,” commented Pablo.
On the other hand, Mariana spoke about the development and the expectations for this selection. “We began pre-production of this film in October 2019 and finished it a few months ago during the pandemic. It’s been a very complex process, as has been the case for the majority of our colleagues in the arts, but we hope that our participation in this event may be a small window of hope to our industry’s return to normality.”
Without a doubt, My Brother's Dream Awake fills us with hope for what’s to come.
