Movieo
Poster for The Pearl Button

The Pearl Button

2015 · 1h 22m · N/A Documentary
Directed by Patricio Guzmán

Seen it?

Overview

The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
93%
Tomatometer
Fresh

This haunting Chilean documentary is more poetry than journalism as filmmaker Patricio Guzman compares the fate of the indigenous people of Patagonia with that of the disappeared of the Pinochet regime.

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail
Fresh

Another philosophical and cosmic historical documentary.

Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Fresh

This is history of a personalized and meditative sort, and you ought to give it a chance.

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
Fresh

By turns lyrical, impressionistic and profound, the documentary "The Pearl Button" requires patience but offers stirring rewards.

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
Rotten

Ultimately, the material starts to feel thin, with Guzman attempting to cover everything in less than 90 minutes.

Alan Zilberman, Washington Post

Comments

Talk about the film with other members

More films