Machuca

Set against the background of Chile's bloody coup in 1973, when Pinochet's military junta overthrew the Allende socialist government, this is the story of how two boys, one from the privileged suburbs and the other a shanty-town slum-dweller, become classmates and friends. As the outside world impinges on their lives, their school, and the lives of their friends and families, we witness a society verging on civil war.

The settings - school, shanty-town, bourgeois villa, Santiago - are finely-depicted, the camerawork creates images that will live with you for years, and the performances of all the young actors are immensely impressive.