Tony Manero

Pablo Larraín's film, set in Chile under Pinochet. Raúl is past fifty. He lives in Santiago and his only interest is Tony Manero, the lead character of Saturday Night Fever. He watches the film over and over, memorises the steps, copies the suit and performs a dance routine for a few people in a small bar. When a Tony Manero contest is announced on television he treats it as the chance of his life. The hard thing is what Raúl does on the way to that goal. The crimes he commits to obtain the money, the costume and the materials for a glass dance floor are tied to no explanation; he does them like ordinary daily errands. The dictatorship is in the background. The young people in his dance group are connected to the underground opposition and the police are after them. Raúl takes no interest in politics at all, and that is the film's actual idea: the indifference the regime produces appears not in a political figure but in a wholly apolitical man. Alfredo Castro plays Raúl. It is the first part of Larraín's trilogy about the Pinochet period. A tight work for anyone who likes Latin American cinema and uncomfortable character portraits. Before you watch, know this: the violence is sudden, cold and unexplained, and the film manufactures no excuse for its character anywhere.