Chilean filmmakers have quietly become a force in international cinema. From Sebastián Lelio’s “Gloria” and its subsequent remake “Gloria Bell” to Dominga Sotomayor Castillo’s groundbreaking “Too Late to Die Young,” the country’s best are reaching success far from home. Now, it’s time for Gaspar Antillo to achieve that same level of notoriety thanks to the film “Nobody Knows I’m Here.”
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Having previously studied film at the National School of Cinema, director Antillo sets up an interesting first act of his own in this impressive freshman effort. Time spent as a music video auteur helped him craft a better understanding of not only cinematic sound design, but the learned instincts which can only come from time spent among an unforgiving music industry. The concept plays perfectly against the backdrop of this Netflix acquired project.
‘Nobody’ confronts those who live in what they could have been; the same people who rarely pay attention to the winding paths of upcoming opportunities. It’s a sentiment that plays heavily into the constructs of numerous time travel films, but what place do these same themes play in stories with added realism on their bones? The project provides a complicated answer through a basic tale of past frustrations colliding with the prospects of forging into the vast unknown.
At the heart of the film is actor Jorge Garcia in the role of Memo; this character is set in solitary pursuits as he resigns himself to a life away from fame as well as most of society’s usual trials and tribulations. Instead, he’s found another way to keep that door to renown cracked open just a bit through costuming. Everything he’s dreamed up stays tamped down well beneath the surface as he searches for other ways to feel somehow known. All that changes with the appearance of a new person in his life and one decision that forces Memo to face everything the past had failed to prepare him for.
The choice between modern-day stardom or quiet solitude holds its own challenges in this 2020 Tribeca Film Festival selection. It premieres June 24 exclusively on Netflix. Watch the film’s trailer below.