"Roll at a given speed the film of your own life experiences and see them projected onto the screen of your astonished mind," Canbales offers as an explanation of what he is doing while locked in the bathroom. Rather than using flashback to escape reality, Canales uses it to face it, and in the process taps into an intriguing and skilful analysis of the rise and fall of Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity government on 11 September 1973, an event that has drawn comparisons by Latin Americans to the events of 11 September 2001 in the way it affected the lives and psyches of ordinary people.

Translated by: John Hassett