Santa Fe Street on AllMovie

Circa 1974, the citizens of Chile threatened to crumble beneath the oppressive weight of dictator Augustin Pinochet. The unpleasantries and injustice of Pinochet's reign, in turn, prompted the efforts of a small, brave, tightly-knit cadre of rebels, known as the MIR, who banded together to buck the current regime and restore the paradise of Salvador Allende. On October 5, 1974, with MIR leader Miguel Enriquez murdered in combat, the Chilean secret police invaded the home of Enriquez's accomplice, Carmen Castillo, and wounded her - as a warning against future subversive activities. This represented only the beginning of a massive clamp-down against the Chilean underground resistance, that would see Pinochet prevail. Castillo's memories, however, lingered - and in time, she found herself asking key questions about the value of her and others' attempts at sedition, especially in light of the unfavorable outcome. The documentary Santa Fe Street finds exiled director Castillo undertaking a long and often poignant journey into the past to revisit the heroic anti-establishment efforts in which she participated. In the process, she ponders whether Enriquez and others died in vain, reinvestigates the events that carried her from 'underground subversive' to 'political exile,' and revisits the circumstances that tore a nation in half ideologically.