Chile to Debut With Interesting Documentary at Berlin Film Festival

Apart from the plot about Adriana, who worked with the bloody general Manuel Contreras during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the documentary has the singularity that the director is the protagonist’s niece.

The tape, whose premiere will be next Tuesday 14, addresses the case of Adriana Rivas, a secretary that with only 19 years became a member of the Brigade Lautaro and personal secretary of Contreras, former head of the National Directorate of Intelligence (DINA).

Resident in Australia for almost 40 years, she returned on several occasions to visit her family, but the last time she came to Chile almost 11 years ago, she was detained.

Adriana Rivas was accused of her participation in the so-called Conference Case, which led to the assassination and disappearance of Communist Party leaders in 1976 and 1977.

On parole a few months after her arrest and with an order of not leaving the jurisdiction, she escaped to Sydney, Australia, through Argentina. She is still facing an extradition process ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice.

Familiarly known as La Chany, she has publicly denied the accusations, manifesting contradictions in repeated exchanges with filmmaker and niece Lissette Orozco, who debuts with the film in the Panorama Dokumente section.

It is totally Chilean and will debut in this South American nation in October. In March it will be part of the Ibero-American Documentary Feature Competition of the 32nd International Film Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico.