Another film from Chile, The Maid, has attracted a lot of attention, including a Golden Globe nomination, and many observers were surprised that it wasn’t chosen as the nation’s entry for the Academy Award. However, Dawson Island #10 (Dawson Isla 10) clearly means more to Chileans. Even those few Americans who know about the CIA-supported overthrow of Chile’s elected president, Salvador Allende, in 1973, don’t know that the military junta that took charge of the country rounded up his cabinet ministers and other leading officials and imprisoned them on a cold and bleak island in Patagonia. This is their story, apparently told realistically. Gradually it becomes clear that many of the soldiers guarding them themselves feel like prisoners, isolated from their families and performing a task with which they don’t feel comfortable.
