Valeria Sarmiento's first Chilean feature was shot in Santiago over the national holidays in September 2007 and released in cinemas there to some acclaim in October 2008. Raúl Ruiz's episodic, dialogue-driven screenplay marks SECRETOS out as a postdictatorial sequel of sorts to DIALOGOS DE EXILIADOS (1974), but here hand-held digital camera-work (emulating the movement of the cueca, Chile's national dance) and post-exilic acidity give Sarmiento's film an unexpected malaise all of its own. Its play at making Chileans see themselves - and in particular the upper-middle class' complacent stigmatisation of those who left - renders SECRETOS an uncomfortable but rewardingly dark comedy of (t)errors. By all means, wash those dirty clothes at home.
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