Le Pacte d'Adriana

A riveting documentary about a young Chilean filmmaker, Lissette Orozco, who discovers that her beloved aunt was a member of Pinochet's notorious secret police.

As a (debut) film, its balancing of the disparate elements is perhaps a little off – too much unrelated footage of other family members, too much of the director talking about her feelings – and it does become slightly repetitive towards the end, but its story and levels of access are incredible, and it's one of those few films deserving of that most overused of adjectives: brave.

Also Orozco has a lovely pretty face. Her next film, brilliantly, is about an uncle!

I have to disagree with rick_7 who says, "too much unrelated footage of other family members, too much of the director talking about her feelings." The film begins by pointedly saying it is largely about family values across generations, and this is used as a "cover" for omerta -- but it is more self-deception than keeping secrets from others. How could Liss NOT talk about her feelings? She is not an official investigator, she is a family member at the moment all children reach when they confront the adult lives from which they descend and cease childhood, but her discovery is terrifying, goes far beyond family, reaches no finality of truth because the stories are told by people whose interest is not truth and by others, in the country of her aunt's exile, who are certain they possess truth and righteousness, but all second-hand. Worst of all, one young person is seeking to know who was responsible for cruelty that was wrong on its face, but she finds herself in a hysterical crowd, a mob, of other young people who want the tragedy replayed.

An extremely courageous documentary, directed by Adriana's niece, where she also puts herself in front of the cameras, at first we felt pity, empathy, the teenage wonder could happen to any of us, but as the documentary progresses we find that she is not so innocent like that, how much she swears, from start to finish, maybe she also wants to believe in her innocence, erasing it, omitting or lying, maybe mentally resetting the facts, erasing it from her memory... Excellent...