The Night & The Universe (2010)

The Motorcycle Diaries

Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he and best friend Alberto Granado had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.

The Summer of the Electric Lion

In a house far from Santiago de Chile, little Alonso tries to change the fate of his sister Daniela, still just a child, who is about to become the seventh wife of the Lion of Judah, a supposed prophet, leader of a cult, who apparently provides electricity when he is touched.

The Last King of Scotland

Young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan decides it's time for an adventure after he finishes his formal education, so he decides to try his luck in Uganda, and arrives during the downfall of President Obote. General Idi Amin comes to power and asks Garrigan to become his personal doctor.

Salvador

In 1980, an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War becomes entangled with both the leftist guerrilla groups and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.

In Bed

It all begins at a party in Santiago, Chile, when a seemingly innocent gesture -- the offer of a ride home -- ends in a passionate night of lovemaking and intense conversation for young singles Bruno and Daniela. Shacked up at a flea-bitten motel for a one-night stand, the pair lingers deep into the night, alternating between powerful physical encounters and an ever-deepening emotional connection.

Standard

Does someone remember that project of López Rega’s which, in 1975, thought up the construction of a Great Homeland Altar where all mythical figures of Argentine history could be in the same building? From San Martín to Perón on his pinto horse. From the Billiken stamps of our childhood to Libertad Leblanc’s tits of our teenage years. All clichés of Argentine-ness gathered under one roof. But the construction delays. Workers entertain themselves with their own masturbatory drives. Or is it that Argentina is an impossibie construction? Always about to begin. always displaying great projects, great plans that never come to fruition. A second-rate country that hides its fundamental vacuity behind monuments. in Acha’s cinema, second-rateness is exposed, shown in all its lying pomposity.

The Quispe Girls

Based on a true story occurred in 1974, this is the tale of sisters Justa, Lucia, and Luciana Quispe, sheperds in the Chilean altiplano who lead a solitary life. A visitor brings news about a law that might change their way of living. This event forces the women to question their existence and relentlessly brings them to a tragic end.

Death and the Maiden

A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.

El Día de mi Independencia

Manuela dreams of winning the "best folkloric dress" contest in the commemoration of Independence Day at school. Meanwhile, her brother Gabo takes the risk of protesting in the streets to end the dictatorship.

Machuca

Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.

The Maid

Raquel has been the live-in housekeeper for a kind, reasonably wealthy family for half her life, and the joyless repetition of the job has begun to take its toll. Increasingly dependent on painkillers, Raquel resorts to pranks and childish avoidance to antagonize the family’s college-age daughter and a procession of new servants, all in the hopes of protecting her precarious power within the home. Her antics successfully push everyone away, until new maid Lucy actually pushes back.

In the Time of the Butterflies

Based on the book by Julia Alvarez. Three sisters become activists during the Dominican Republic's Trujillo regime when members of their family are killed by the government's troops.

Ema

Ema is a magnetic and impulsive dancer in a reggaeton troupe. Her toxic marriage to choreographer Gastón is beyond repair, following a decision to give up on their adopted child Polo. She sets out on a mission to get him back, not caring who she’ll need to fight, seduce or destroy to make it happen.

My Name is Bruce

An unemployed man wanders the streets of Santiago de Chile in the 80s (Pinochet's Chile), looking for a chance to be a hero. In an old cinema in the center of the city, it may has his opportunity. A student film by Gabriel Lizama AKA Liz Taylor.

Deformes

Pablo Deformes is a dreamy child who lives in Santiago in the 1960s. Little by little, reality begins to enter his childish world of fantasy, forcing him to grow up. A student film by Gabriel Lizama AKA Liz Taylor.

The South

After the end of the military dictatorship in Argentina in 1983, Floreal is released from prison. Instead of returning to his wife, he wanders through the night of Buenos Aires. He meets some people from his past–most of which are only imaginary–and remembers the events of his imprisonment.

Chameleon

An unexpected guest interrupts a couple's last day together, transforming their peaceful farewell.

The Settlers

Chile, early 20th century. José Menéndez, a wealthy landowner, hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia.

A Long Journey

The death of his newborn brother will cause a child from the poor neighborhoods of Santiago to walk around the city with the lost cardboard wings that the dead baby lost after the wake, trying to return them to him with the illusion that his little brother can fly to heaven.

Up to the World

Davide and Loris are brothers and live in a very small village in the north of Italy. While Davide is eighteen years old and gay, Loris is almost thirty and doesn't know anything about his brother's sexuality.

God Will Not Help

A Chilean woman, Teresa, comes into a firmly structured and isolated mountain community of Croatian shepherds in the early 20th century, claiming to be the widow of their émigré brother. Her arrival changes the dynamics between the members of the community and brings unrest, but also inspiration for other women.

The Messenger

Vera, imprisoned at a military fortress during the dictatorship, 1969, get to know a soldier, Armando, who, in the face of torture, decides to take messages from Vera to his family and establishes an affective relationship with D. Maria, Vera’s mother. Despite the horrors of the time, the film works on this possibility of a dialogue between two lonely and lost human beings: a high-middle-class lady and a young southerner of rural origin. Today, Vera, aged 70, is a professor at the university, and debates with her students about politics, forgiveness and Hannah Arendt.

Tony Manero

A man is obsessed with John Travolta's disco dancing character from "Saturday Night Fever".

Olga

Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.

Cuarto de Hora

Alex (25), is a young Haitian man living in Chile who is undocumented and does not speak Spanish. After a car accident he is helped and translated by Daniela (50), a passerby with whom he is going to live what could be his last 15 minutes of life.

Missing

Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman. A conservative American businessman travels to Chile to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a military takeover. Accompanied by his son's wife he uncovers a trail of cover-ups that implicate the US State department which supports the dictatorship.

You'll Never Be Alone

When his cross-dressing teenage son suffers a brutally violent attack, a mannequin-factory manager desperately seeks help and, when none can be found, is forced to take matters into his own hands.

El mal trato

Ramiro is a teacher from the south of Chile that does not expect much of life. His relationship with his wife Irma has been out of a passion for years. Unexpectedly Irma decides to abandon him. The surrounding events take out the worst of Ramiro while he becomes an obscure person. A story of transformation, when the darkness within rises.

The Big Chamorro Circus

The hard-working owner of a circus, Euríspides Chamorro (Eugenio Retes), goes to Santiago in search of his son, a medical student, but finds to his surprise that he has dropped out of school and no one knows his whereabouts. To make matters worse, one of his employees snatches the circus from him, starting an adventure to recover everything and to convince his son to become a doctor.

Of Love and Shadows

Irene is a magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Francisco is a handsome photographer and he comes to Irene for a job. As a sympathizer with the underground resistance movement, Francisco opens her eyes and her heart to the atrocities being committed by the state.

Esmeralda Bay

A priest secretly leads rebels in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo.

The 33

Based on the true story of the collapse of a mine in San Jose, Chile—that left 33 miners isolated underground for 69 days.

Entranced Earth

Eldorado, a fictitious country in America, is sparkling with the internal struggle for political power. In the eye of this social convulsion, the jaded journalist Paulo Martins opposes two equally corrupt political candidates: a pseudopopulist and a conservative. In this context, Paulo is torn between the madness of the elite and the blind submission of the masses. But, in this complex tropical reality, nothing really is what it seems to be.

The Man Standing Next

When the investigation of 'Koreagate' takes place, Park Yong-gak, a former KCIA director who knows everything about the government's operations, heads to the United States in exile.

Repentance

The day after his funeral, the corpse of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.

Mutt

Over the course of a single hectic day in New York City, three people from Feña's past are thrust back into his life: his foreign father, his straight ex-boyfriend, and his 13-year old half-sister. Having lost touch since transitioning from female to male, Feña must navigate the new dynamics of these old relationships while tackling the day-to-day challenges that come with living a life in-between.

The Crossing of the Andes

Buenos Aires, 1880. A journalist interviews Manuel Esteban Corvalán, one of the last living men who crossed the Andes in 1817 with José de San Martín, during the Argentinian and Chilean wars of independence, as one of his secretaries, when he was only 15 years old.

Post Mortem

In Chile, 1973, during the last days of Salvador Allende's presidency, an employee at a Morgue's recording office falls for a burlesque dancer who mysteriously disappears.

Night of the Pencils

The Night of the Pencils was a series of kidnappings and forced disappearances, followed by the torture, rape, and murder of a number of young students during the last Argentine dictatorship (known as the National Reorganization Process). The kidnappings took place over the course of several days beginning on September 16, 1976.

First Born

While Thomas spends his last weekend in Chile with his family, before traveling abroad for the first time, a flaw in the sewage system produces a flood of smelly water. The problem shows the essence of family relationships.

A Fantastic Woman

Marina's life is thrown into turmoil following the death of her partner. Mourning the loss of the man she loved, she finds herself under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy.

1988

In the winter of 1988, in the depths of the Iraq/Iran war, the border town of Halabja was attacked by chemical weapons with all its people and their different stories.

Génesis

In an inner world suspended between oblivion and creation, a female figure moves through a dreamlike space where forgotten ideas take shape. Genesis is an experimental piece that explores the journey toward the origin of an idea — of oneself.

The Eye on the Nape

This is the story of Pablo, a young uruguayan exiled in México, whose father was disappeared during the military dictatorship.

The 70s

Amanda and Julian are doing their best to rear their five sons during the repressive dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Though the parents view themselves as apolitical, most of their sons bristle at life under martial law and turn to various forms of activism -- or to simple teenage rebellion -- for release. After the family becomes the victim of extremist violence, Amanda begins to find her own dissident voice.

Sweet Country

An American couple in Chile is drawn into the turmoil that followed President Salvador Allende's 1973 overthrow.

Sopaipillas Pasadas

Lucía, looking to get ahead with her son, Álvaro, begins to sell his failed sopaipillas to drunken men at a Pool Bar in his area.

April Captains

Story of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it.

Galeria F

Plot unavailable

Crisis

An American doctor gets caught in the middle of a revolution when he's forced to operate on a South American dictator.

The Battle

21 sequence shots depict moments in a defining night of the Battle of Rua Maria Antônia, in October 1968, from the point of view of the students and professors of the Left-wing Student Movement, in the Philosophy Faculty building of USP.

Colonia

A young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody ever escaped from.

The Future

When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.

Three Sad Tigers

A glimpse at the few days and nights in the lives of a brother and sister, Amanda and Tito, in Santiago’s semi-criminal underworld. A rambling portrait of Chilean society.

Blocks

Thirteen-year old Luchito lives in a working class complex of blocks in Santiago, Chile. He is obsessed with Manuel, a sixteen-year old who lives in the building across from him.

Trauma

Four friends visit a rural locality of Chile, are brutally attacked by a man and his son. After not finding help in the town, they decide to confront these men with the help of a pair of policemen. But in this way, they will discover that their attackers have in their blood the direct legacy of the darkest period of Chilean history and will have to face the most brutal enemy.

Hidden in the Woods

The story of two sisters who have been raised in isolation, subjected to the torment of their abusive, drug dealing father. When they finally decide to report him to the police, he kills the two officers and is put in jail. But things go from bad to worse when the girls must answer to their Uncle Costello, a psychotic drug kingpin, who shows up looking for his missing merchandise which is hidden in the woods.

Julio Begins in July

This is the story of a teenager at the turn of the century in the conservative higher classes of Chile and the initiation rites in his society.

Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus

Jamie is a boorish, insensitive American twentysomething traveling in Chile, who somehow manages to create chaos at every turn. He and his friends are planning on taking a road trip north to experience a legendary shamanistic hallucinogen called the San Pedro cactus. In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman—a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy—to come along.

Y Adán y

From the depths of the sea is born Adam, a young man who searches the world for the place to which he belongs. Walking along the beach, he meets another child like him and they become friends. As an adult, the child becomes a man who tries to find the woman, his counterpart. Harassed by the beings of the world, he sees it through dreams and this helps him to recover from his evil.

Until Tomorrow, Comrades

Portugal, 1944. In a country oppressed by a brutal dictatorship, there are those who resist and mobilize the people to fight for bread and freedom, even if it cost them prison, torture or their lives.

No

In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the ‘No’ vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, René Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and while under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.

The Painting Lesson

In Chile, during the 60´s, the son of a poor single teenage girl turns out to be a gifted painter. The man to discover his talent is the owner of the drugstore that lies in the outskirts of the small rural town, next to the railroad. He himself is an amateur painter who will try to make the boy into a great artist, like all the ones in his art books. From the pharmacists point of view in his old age, unfolds the story of this young boy who could have become a great art genius, had he not disappeared at the age of 13, along with all his works, on September 11th 1973, the day of the coupe d´état.

Polar

When a retiring assassin realizes that he is the target of a hit, he winds up back in the game going head to head with a gang of younger, ruthless killers.