Lost Boy

CINEMA OF TOMORROW

The plot of “The Punishment,” the twelfth film by Chilean Matías Bize, is very simple. Little Lucas (Santiago Urbina), a seven-year-old boy, abandons the car of his parents, Ana (Antonia Zegers) and Mateo (Néstor Cantillana) and gets lost in the forest.

According to Coral Cruz’s script, it is about a problematic boy who scratches the notebooks that his mother gives him, who is the one who has to impose punishments on him, since Mateo is very permissive.

Moments before the disappearance, Lucas almost caused an accident by covering his mother’s eyes while driving.

Fearful of punishment, he ran into the forest.

Ana is reluctant to tell the truth to the police investigating the disappearance (Catalina Saavedra) because she could brand them as bad parents.

Over the course of 85 minutes, the director of “The Life of Fishes” makes a profound study of this marriage on the brink of collapse, supported by two splendid actors.

We remember Antonia Zegers in other important Chilean films such as “El conde”, “El club” and “No”, by her former husband Pablo Larraín, while Catillana also participated in “No” and “Neruda”.

The Punishment won the award for best photography at the Ceara Ibero-American Festival and the Malaga Festival and despite its simplicity, it maintains the interest of viewers until the last moment.