A vacationing American tabletop gamer is drawn into a mystery in the dying days of Pinochet's Chile.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Alicia Scherson
Starring: Dan Beirne, Lux Pascal, Aline Kuppenheim, David Gaete, Agustin Pardella
Having previously adapted novelist Roberto Bolano with her 2013 film Il Futuro, Chilean writer/director Alicia Scherson now brings the author's novel 'The Third Reich' to the screen as Summer War. The novel takes its title from a tabletop war game in which the WWII battlegrounds of Europe and North Africa are recreated on a board, the fates of millions decided by the roll of a dice.
A champion at the game is Udo (Dan Beirne), an American nerd who travels to the Chilean coast for a vacation with his seemingly out of his league girlfriend Ingrid (Lux Pascal). It is 1989, a pivotal year for the country. The dictator Pinochet has finally been ousted via the campaign illustrated so brilliantly in Pablo Larrain's No, but he has yet to leave office. Chile finds itself in a state of uncertainty. Has democracy really arrived, or will Pinochet simply refuse to leave?
None of this matters to Udo. He has two obsessions: the board game, about which he has promised to write an article for a gaming magazine; and Elsa (Aline Kuppenheim), the glamorous manager of his hotel. Udo first became besotted with Elsa when he stayed at the hotel as a 14-year-old, and he has been unable to stop thinking about her since. His toe-curling attempts at flirting are laughed off by Elsa, but Udo is convinced he has a chance. Meanwhile Ingrid insists on distracting Udo by dragging him to nightclubs in the company of a loud and obnoxious young Argentinean couple, Charlie (Agustin Pardello) and Lola (Malena Sanchez). Charlie is physically abusive to Lola, who refuses to follow Ingrid's advice and seek help from the police.
When Charlie disappears in mysterious circumstances, Udo feigns interest and decides to stick around when Ingrid returns to the US, claiming he wants to help with the search. Udo's true intentions are far less noble, setting his sights on Elsa, who astonishingly appears to become more receptive to his dubious charm. Udo also befriends El Quemado (David Gaete), an indigenous man who lives in a tent on the beach and whose face is scarred from a bad burn. The locals warn Udo that El Quemado is a troubled individual who is likely to turn violent at any given moment, but Udo is fascinated at how quickly El Quemado becomes proficient in The Third Reich. Udo has found an unlikely worthy opponent.
Summer War falls somewhere between the Aussie New Wave classic Wake in Fright and Andrew Bujalski's satire of gaming conventions Computer Chess. Initially Udo seems like the sort of nerd who could have stepped out of Bujalski's film, but like the protagonist of Wake in Fright, he undergoes a transformation as he immerses himself in an alien culture. The locals joke that Udo is uptight and awkward because he is secretly a CIA agent, and Udo seems to embrace that idea. It is though he is willing himself to become the hero of a Graham Greene novel, endangering himself by flirting with married women and butting into the investigation (or lack thereof) into Charlie's disappearance. But he is also spending hours playing a board game with a stranger in his hotel room.
That board game becomes a representation of the commodification of suffering and atrocity. The real life deaths of millions just four decades prior now fuel a form of entertainment. El Quemado, who it is rumoured was left scarred by standing up to Chile's ruthless authorities, is taken back at the causal manner in which Udo decides he is going to play the game as the Nazis. El Quemado has fought fascism for real, and in this new game he sees an opportunity to defeat his foes in a way he was denied in reality. He becomes obsessed with defeating Udo, and their game runs on for what seems like weeks. As the days go by each man becomes a little more unhinged, determined not to lose.
Beirne's performance is remarkable. When we first see Udo he is the very picture of a stereotypical nerd, all bad posture with a mouth breather's weak profile. His awkward social interactions do little to dispel this perception (not to mention his awful dance moves). But as he spends time in Chile Udo begins to transform, growing in confidence. When women start to throw themselves at him we understand their attraction. You wouldn't look twice at the Udo we first meet, but by the film's final act he is as sexy a screen presence as any James Bond.
One of the reasons we holiday in foreign lands is how it affords us a chance to become someone else. In the company of strangers we can shed our social baggage, unburden ourselves of any perceptions our family, friends and co-workers back home might have. In an uncertain Chile attempting to figure out its new identity, it is this American visitor who seizes the opportunity to reinvent himself.
