No
Modern Masters
/ Feature Narrative / Chile, United States of America, France, Mexico / 2012 / Colour
In Spanish / Arabic, English subtitles
Qatar Premiere
Rated: Parental guidance advised for viewers under the age of 15. Individuals under the age of 15 are not admitted into cinemas unless accompanied by an individual aged 18 or over.
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Synopsis
In 1988, facing international pressure, President Augusto Pinochet calls for a national referendum so the people of Chile can vote whether he should stay in power for a further eight years. Seizing an unprecedented opportunity, opposition leaders hire a brash young ad executive to spearhead their campaign. He surprises everybody by devising an audacious – and risky – plan to undermine the dictator’s propaganda machine.
A golden thread in Pablo Larraín’s remarkable film trilogy about Chile is his ability to adopt a truly original point of view on his country’s troubled history. ‘Tony Manero’ evoked the oppressive years of Pinochet’s dictatorship – and its scarring effects on Chilean national identity – through a middle-aged sociopath. ‘Post Mortem’ showed Pinochet’s coup as seen by the coroner who performed the autopsy on the deposed President Allende. In ‘No’, everything comes full circle: by recounting the end of harsh rule through the eyes of an ad man who doesn’t shy away from the most commercial tactics of marketing communication, Larraín celebrates the joy of freedom regained, but doesn’t sidestep heavy questions about the future of his country.
By seamlessly interpolating new material – shot in 4:3 television ratio with a 1983 video camera – with archival news footage and original TV spots, ‘No’ plunges us into the actual events with a realism and truthfulness rarely captured on screen.