by MALCOLM FRASER

The recent death of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet put an end to the assorted attempts to bring him to justice for the thousands of deaths, kidnappings and torture that occurred during his regime. The timing is therefore ripe for The Dark Side of the White Lady, a political documentary reminding us that the issue goes much further than one deceased despot.

Chilean-born filmmaker Patricio Henriquez, who moved to Montreal after Pinochet’s coup in 1973, has already directed two docs on his native land’s history. Here, he chooses as his subject the Esmeralda, a training ship for the Chilean navy, which is also a symbol of national pride. The film opens with the ship heading off to sea for its 50th anniversary in 2004. The cheering crowds at the pier are disrupted by a small group of protestors. We learn that in the weeks following the coup, the Esmeralda (also known as the “White Lady” of the title) was used to detain and torture political prisoners.

We get to know a handful of the survivors, hear their harrowing stories and share their frustrations as they pursue the tireless, sometimes quixotic quest to hold the naval authorities accountable for the torture. Even after the government publicly acknowledges that torture was an institutionalized practice in the Pinochet era, the navy first denies that anything happened, then blames a mysterious “external element,” and finally tries the “that’s all in the past, let’s look to the future” tactic. Even worse, the film shows Chilean civilians booing the protestors, calling them “bitter Communists.”

With such powerful themes, it’s hard to criticize such a film on purely cinematic grounds. But it needs to be said: the film is overlong, often going off on tangents that add little to the big picture, and this abundance of material sometimes leads to visuals that are either clichéd (spooky shots of the ship with brooding music) or just pointless (meandering shots of nothing in particular). It’s the price you pay when story and theme take overwhelming precedence over aesthetics.

Some judicious editing could have made this a really gripping story. The survivors’ stories and the courage of their convictions allow Henriquez to get away with these lapses, if just barely.

The Dark Side of the White Lady opens this Friday, Jan. 12

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