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One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train
Cien niños esperando un tren
Ignacio Agüero’s remarkable documentary starts as a tender portrait of influential film historian and activist Alicia Vega teaching a film history workshop to impoverished youth in Santiago. Gradually, the film transforms into a devastating critique of the Pinochet regime by shifting focus to Vega’s young students and their families. In touching scenes, Agüero shows their cramped quarters as a poignant expression of their denizens’ aspirations and vulnerabilities.
Censors struggled to explain why they restricted the film to viewers over twenty-one years old, because this clearly confirms Agüero’s film and Vega’s workshop expose: the deliberate stratification of class through poverty and lack of education, imposed by the dictatorship. One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train also shows how cinema—both Agüero’s and the ‘films’ made of paper and glue by the children—can be a gateway to the knowledge and perspective that one day may lead to freedom.
Bio Ignacio Agüero
Ignacio Agüero (Chile, 1952) studied architecture and film. He made his first shorts during the Pinochet dictatorship, culminating in One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train (1988). His line of work as an artist has mainly been as a documentary filmmaker, though he also appeared as an actor in numerous films, including several by Raúl Ruiz.
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- This film was #78 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025