Cartas a mis padres muertos

Making a film to communicate with those who are no longer here. Making a film to share with your parents, already long gone, all that they couldn’t witness: images, memories, experiences, a garden and certain misfortunes. CARTAS A MIS PADRES MUERTOS, the latest film by Chilean filmmaker Ignacio Agüero, is an embodiment of the shamanic cinema as written about by his countryman and occasional collaborator Raúl Ruiz: “It should not surprise us that the person we are speaking to has been dead for years; nor should we be shocked by the dead person’s astonishment on discovering that we are alive.” Filmed with the graceful balance of subtle humour, everyday observations and tenderness so characteristic of Agüero—and without the letters suggested by the title—CARTAS A MIS PADRES MUERTOS is above all a game, at once fun and deeply serious: a journey from the director’s private garden into the world outside, passing through losses, friends and the history of a country. A journey in which politics intertwine with love, and in which the deceased parents ask the same question again and again: “And where are the disappeared, where are the dead?” (Gonzalo de Pedro Amatria)

In presence of Ignacio Agüero.

Ignacio Agüero: AQUÍ SE CONSTRUYE (1977, K), NO OLVIDAR (1982, K), COMO ME DA LA GANA (1985, K), CIEN NIÑOS ESPERANDO UN TREN (1988), SUEÑOS DE HIELO (1993), NERUDA, TODO EL AMOR (1998, K), AQUÍ SE CONSTRUYE (O YA NO EXISTE EL LUGAR DONDE NACÍ) (2000), LA MAMÁ DE MI ABUELA LE CONTÓ A MI ABUELA (2004), EL DIARIO DE AGUSTÍN (2008), EL OTRO DÍA (2013), COMO ME DA LA GANA II (2016), NUNCA SUBÍ EL PROVINCIA (2019), NOTAS PARA UNA PELÍCULA (2023)