Oasis
Felipe Morgado & Tamara Uribe / Chile / 2024 / 80 min
A panoramic snapshot of Chile in a turbulent period where a new youth movement has joined the fight for the country's future. A razor-sharp take on a time of upheaval with a clear vision of the nature of political conflict.
The street is an arena with its own political dynamics. Shot in the Chilean capital Santiago, ‘Oasis’ documents the turbulent period in the otherwise stable country, which started in 2019 with protests over public transport fares and quickly developed into a large-scale mass protest that spread across the country. But where other protest films are content to reproduce the noise and chaos of the agitated atmosphere, ‘Oasis’ takes the opposite approach and observes the situation with an analytical clarity, allowing you to consider the causes of the protests, not just their immediate effect. The film does not take sides – there are indigenous people, feminists, anarchists and conservatives on the streets, each with their own cause – but even though we are not told what to think, ‘Oasis’ is a powerfully political film whose topicality is not limited to Chile, but allows us to understand the democratic drama of any society.