This extraordinary documentary about a young Belgian-Chilean filmmaker (Andrés Lübbert) who decides to investigate his father's secret past, a Chilean cinematographer who found refuge in Europe from Augusto Pinochet's fascist regime, won the Best Film award at the first Human Rights Film Festival of Panamá. The festival is also known as BannabaFest, after the guna word "bannaba" (with its accent on the last "a") which evolved into the name of the country of Panamá (also with accent on the last "a").
As a simple description, this work is something like a political thriller in the Constantin Costa-Gavras style, mixed with family drama, all based on facts. Andrés' father is cinematographer Jorge Lübbert, brother of Chilean filmmaker Orlando Lübbert, who gave shelter to Jorge when he arrived in Berlin as an exile. Jorge went from East to West Germany and finally to Belgium, and for little Andrés his father's behavior was a puzzling mystery. Eventually he became a filmmaker and decided to make this movie. The result is a highly dramatic account of the lives of these two men who went through a painful process to learn their past. It is a powerful motion picture about the force of truth and the horror perpetrated by those persons who seek world dominance, as Latin American oligarchies and militia, and those whose fascist leaning determines the United States foreign policy (as the creation of the School of the Americas in Panamá, to train torturers and assassins all over the continent).
I would say that this motion picture is for emotionally grown up people, not for those only seeking entertainment. The unfolding of truth in "The Color of the Chameleon" is quite interesting and on its own way entertaining, while simultaneously contributing to our getting of wisdom. The film hardly lets you down, as it consciously follows its investigation (which is its main objective), but it also goes straight to your heart in emotional little moments between father and son. Works like this do not let you escape to the Kingdom of Men, Skull Island or Gotham City to watch fantasy tales. Those settings and stories are fine when you want to watch them. However, "Chameleon" takes us to other reigns, mind spaces of horror, solidarity and love. If we are not looking for the land of Kong, Frodo and Bruce Wayne, "Chameleon" is something quite different and probably more rewarding for us viewers, as human beings.
