Cast

Ramiro Orellana, played by Patricio Contreras

Maite, played by Gloria Lasso

Diver’s assistant, played by Eugenio Morales

Diver, played by Aldo Bernales

Hilda, played by Griselda Núñez

Father Patricio, played by Héctor Noguera

Secretary, played by Sergio Scmied

Detective, played by Aníbal Reyna

Elsa, played by Elsa Poblete

Crew

Director: Ricardo Larraín

Screenplay: Jorge Goldemberg and Ricardo Larraín

Producer: Eduardo Larraín

Executive Producers: Eduardo Larraín, Ricardo Larraín

Photography: Héctor Ríos

Costume Designer: Susan Bertram

Production Designer: Jane Stewart

Editor: Claudio Martínez

Sound: Miguel Hormazabal

Music: Jaime de Aguirre

Art Director: Juan Carlos Castillo

Production Director: Mara Sánchez

Head of Production: Alvaro Corvera

Awards

OCIC Award, Chile, 1991

Silver Bear, Berlin Film Festival, 1992

Goya Award, Spain, 1992

Golden Sun, Biarritz Festival, 1992

Best Film, Trieste Festival, 1992

Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, 1992

Plot

The film opens with a maths teacher, Ramiro Orellana, being escorted by two policemen to a remote part of Southern Chile. The car goes over a lake on a raft; we see a very drunk man travelling across who – we learn later – is the diver’s assistant. The two men hand over the ‘relegado’ to the ‘authorities’ in the town; they explain that – because of his subversive activities (he signed a petition denouncing the disappearance of a colleague ) – Ramiro has been sentenced to ‘internal exile’ in a remote part of Chile. The two men also hand over the log-book which Ramiro must sign on a regular basis. The superintendent and his assistant clearly do not know what they are doing though they accept their new assignment without complaint. Ramiro has a letter from the Archbishop but the local priest is not in town so the superintendent leaves him out in the rain. Ramiro meets a local woman, Maite, who gets the key to the sacristy and lets Ramiro in. Ramiro goes to the local bar and, while he is there, the diver’s assistant dies from alcoholism. His coffin is, later on, brought into the church. The priest arrives and explains the residency rules to Ramiro. The priest conducts the funeral of the diver’s assistant. Ramiro accompanies Maite to the ruins by the sea of the house where she used to live with her father, Ignacio, before the tidal wave came; he is beginning to fall in love with her.