In October 1988 a referendum was held to determine the future of General Pinochet’s military grip over Chile.  Two political campaigns ran, one for YES and one for NO.  The NO campaign was given 15 minutes of airtime a day, unsubtly leaving the rest of the broadcast day for the use of the YES campaign.

In NO Gael García Bernal plays René Saavedra, an advertising executive with some fairly radical ideas, brought in to spearhead the NO campaign.  There’s a perceived underlying futility to the campaign, as it’s suggested that whichever way it goes, Pinochet being Pinochet will fudge the results.  Regardless, Saavedra forges ahead with his commercials, which focus on the positive outcomes from a NO win, instead of focusing as the NO campaigners would have him do, on the negatives of the existing dictatorship.

Where TONY MANERO showed Chile at the height of Pinochet’s rule, here we see a very different Chile ten years later…

The film is based on the play El Plebiscito, written by Antonio Skármeta, and has a similar tone to Pablo Larraín’s previous work, 2008’s excellent TONY MANERO.  Where TONY MANERO showed Chile in 1978 at the height of Pinochet’s rule, here we see a very different Chile ten years later, a country at breaking point.  The film has been treated in post production to appear like 1980s film stock, which does wonders for the tone of the piece, making the actual footage of the campaign blend seamlessly with the new material.

Bernal is on fine form here, as a man used to phoning in an effortless advertising pitch, finally given a product to ‘sell’ that he can actually get behind.  He faces many obstacles along the way, the corruption of the referendum for one, but also past allies becoming enemies over the mast to which he has pinned his flag.  All the while he cares for his young son, and has to watch helplessly as his activist wife is repeatedly arrested and beaten, simply for speaking up.

NO is a less heavy experience than it might seem on paper, unflinching from the disgusting realities of a regime of torture, but also exploring the ridiculousness of 1980s popular culture.  Gael Garcia Bernal skateboarding to work was always going to look cool.  A keyboardist in parachute pants, star jumping in a cola commercial, less so.
httpvh://youtu.be/79OO_QYUBRA