‘Eternal Memory’ Breakout Maite Alberdi Enters Narrative Filmmaking with Chile’s True-Crime Oscar Contender ‘In Her Place’
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Loading... - Baniti Emad
- 12 Dec 2024
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Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi, known for her Oscar-nominated documentaries "The Mole Agent" and "The Eternal Memory," has made her fiction debut with "In Her Place" (El lugar de la otra), a true-crime drama based on the 2019 book "When Women Kill" (Las Homicidas) by Alia Trabucco Zerán. The film is Chile's Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film.
The story revolves around María Carolina Geel, a writer who shot her romantic partner to death in 1955. Geel's case was highly publicized due to her status in the intellectual elite, and she was eventually pardoned. Alberdi was drawn to the material because of its exploration of gender and class, as well as the way in which women were treated differently in the justice system.
The film takes a unique approach by not making Geel the protagonist. Instead, it focuses on Mercedes, a married mother who works for the judge assigned to Geel's case. Mercedes becomes fascinated with Geel's story and begins to see parallels between her own life and Geel's. The film explores themes of female empowerment, freedom, and the constraints placed on women in patriarchal societies.
Alberdi's approach to the material was influenced by her documentary background. She used real-life testimonies and case files to inform the script, and worked closely with her co-writers to create a narrative that was both fictional and grounded in reality.
The film's production was a significant undertaking, requiring a substantial budget and the expertise of key craftspeople to recreate the spaces and clothing of the mid-20th century in Chile. Alberdi credits Netflix with providing the necessary resources to bring the project to life.
In making her fiction debut, Alberdi experienced a sense of control and agency that she had not encountered in her documentary work. She was able to make decisions and respond to the questions of her collaborators in a way that was not possible in documentary filmmaking.
Alberdi's experience working on "In Her Place" has inspired her to continue exploring the boundaries between fiction and documentary. She plans to continue making documentaries, but with a greater emphasis on fiction components.
Overall, "In Her Place" is a powerful and thought-provoking film that explores themes of female empowerment and the constraints placed on women in patriarchal societies. Alberdi's unique approach to the material and her experience working on the film have resulted in a cinematic experience that is both engaging and impactful.
