A Take On The Pearl Button (El Boton De Nacar)

17th March 2016

The Pearl Button is essentially about water, in all its forms.

Winner of the Silver Bear for script at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, The Pearl Button is the prolific Chilean director Patricio Guzmán’s latest documentary.

Guzmán takes us on a trip through Chile, from the 19th century colonisation to the disaster of the Pinochet dictatorship.

With it’s 2600 miles of coastline, Chile surprisingly does not have a maritime history, however its country’s history is beautifully and tragically connected to water. Guzmán’s perspective of the sea – admiration and fear – is based on a childhood memory of a friend being swept away, never to be found. In this very personal film he shares with us the revelation he had when discovering the fate of the indigenous people of Chile, and sucessfully continues the metaphor of lost people throughout the film.

“For the indigenous and the astronomers, the ocean is an idea, a concept that’s inseparable from life”.

In terms of human geography, Chile is essentially an island divided into three parts – the north, the centre and the south, dividing it into essentially three countries. An isolating arid desert in the north, a frozen continent in the south and a narrow strip, unable to support agriculture, running down the centre. The first inhabitants of Patagonia were made up of five groups: the Kawésqar, the Selk’nam, the Aoniken, the Hausch and the Yamana people. Included in the film are incredible photos of the Selk’nam people, taken in the 19th century, with body painting that was unusually beautiful and graphic. Soon after, their world of water and stars collapsed, invaded by the colonists – missionaries, explorers, farmers…

Guzmán successfully juxtaposes history, mythology and anthropology. Interviews with historian Gabriel Salazar, anthropologist Claudio Mercado, and poet Raúl Zurita, as well as three remaining members of the Selk’nan and Kawésqar people results in a rich essay of images – political, picturesque and poetic. An extremely thought provoking film that revives a part of history that has long been ignored.

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