Nona: If They Soak Me, I'll Burn Them

"After making a splash with the excellent 'Naomi Campbel', Chilean filmmaker Camila José Donoso gained attention in Latin American cinema. Now, her new film 'Nona. Si me mojan, yo los quemo' follows Josefina Ramirez, the filmmaker's grandmother who was part of the anti-Pinochet resistance and became an expert in Molotov cocktail production. Now elderly, fantasy fiction strongly and radically blends with a documentary tone in the narrative. Unlike 'Naomi Campbel', where this boundary is worked with delicacy, things are clearer here. Fiction is fiction. Perhaps due to the care Donoso takes with her grandmother's image, there is more attention paid to the way everything is portrayed, told, and developed. It is easy to see that the protagonist-interviewee really understands Molotov cocktails, as well as letting her political aura go beyond. The political strength of the protagonist exists. It resists. Meanwhile, the filmmaker also plays with the fictional tone in an experimental way, internalizing the different social tones of her grandmother. Unfortunately, however, the documentary scenes of the feature are superior in aesthetic and narrative quality, making the film as a whole become irregular. The idea is good and there is quality in Donoso's direction. But it could be better and go beyond experimentation."