Machuca (2004)

Machuca is a 2004 internationally co-produced coming-of-age political drama film co-written and directed by Andrés Wood. It stars Matías Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli, and Aline Küppenheim alongside Federico Luppi.

Set in Santiago during the months leading up to the 1973 coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet – which overthrew Salvador Allende's socialist government – the film tells the story of two boys who attend an elite Catholic school: Gonzalo Infante – who belongs to a wealthy family with a European background – and Pedro Machuca – who is poor and comes from an indigenous background.

The film is inspired by and dedicated to Father Gerardo Whelan, C.S.C. who from 1969 to 1973 was the director of Saint George's College, the private school depicted in the film, which the director himself attended as a boy. Machuca was filmed in July 2003 and produced on a moderate budget of US$1,700,000. It is a joint Chilean-Spanish-British-French international co-production with support from Ibermedia. Production companies included Andrés Wood Producciones, Tornasol Films, Mamoun Hassan, Paraíso, and Chile Films.

The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight parallel section of the 57th Cannes Film Festival in May 2004. The film became one of the highest-grossing domestic ever in Chile, and went on grossing more than $3 million in worldwide box office.