''Nae Pasaran'' is a 2018 documentary directed by Felipe Bustos Sierra about a group of workers at a

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

factory in East Kilbride,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, who refused to work on

Chilean Air Force The Chilean Air Force () is the air force of Chile and branch of the Chilean military. History The first step towards the current FACh is taken by Lieutenant Colonel, Teniente Coronel training as a pilot in France. Although a local academy was c ...

parts from 1974-78 due to the atrocities carried out in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

by the Pinochet dictatorship. The feature-length film was expanded from an earlier 2013 short film by the same name, funded through the Scottish Documentary Institute's ''Bridging the Gap'' programme. The film was the last programme broadcast on the new

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

channel's first day on air and was rebroadcast on the same channel on 4 May and 20 October 2019 and on 21 November 2020. A lost engine rediscovered during production was brought back to Scotland and unveiled as a public monument, in commemoration of the boycott, at South Lanarkshire College, East Kilbride in 2019.

Production

The feature-length film tells the story of four Scotsmen – Bob Fulton, John Keenan, Robert Somerville and Stuart Barrie – who along with their workmates downed tools and refused to service and repair engines for the Chilean air force's British-made

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet propulsion, jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly dev ...

jet fighters. It explores just how significant their actions were in depriving the Chilean military dictatorship of much of its air power, contrary to the latter's claims at the time, through witness statements not only from several victims of the 1973 military coup but also from the unrepentant former

chief Fernando Rojas Vender. Following Chile's return to democracy, three of the four Scotsmen – Fulton, Keenan and Somerville – were awarded the highest honour which the Chilean government can bestow on foreigners, the

Order of Bernardo O'Higgins The Order of Bernardo O'Higgins () is an award issued by Chile. It is the highest civilian honor awarded to non-Chilean citizens. This award was established in 1965 and named after one of the founders of the Chilean state, the independentist gener ...

, at the rank of Commander (Comendador), during a 2015 ceremony at the City Chambers in Glasgow by Chile's ambassador to the UK, Rolando Drago. The ceremony was included in the film and co-organised by the director.

Release

The feature-length film was commercially released in March 2018 in the UK and subsequently on DVD. A Spanish language version was released in 2019, picking up an award at a film festival in the Basque city of San Sebastián. It went on general release in Chile on 6 June 2019, distributed by Miradoc. It became on release the most successful Scottish documentary in UK cinemas, until the release of '' My Old School'' in 2022.

Reception

Nae Pasaran won the Best Feature award at the 2018 British Academy Scotland Awards and its director, Felipe Bustos Sierra, was shortlisted for the Best Director (Factual) award. It was also shortlisted in the Best Documentary category in the 2018

British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early Nov ...

. The film won the Audience Prize at the San Sebastián Human Rights Film Festival in April 2019."¡Nae pasaran!", Premio del Público en el 17º Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos
12 April 2019 ''www.zinemaetagizaeskubideak.eus'', accessed 9 June 2021

References

{{Reflist 2018 documentary films 2018 films Films about the Chilean military dictatorship Documentary films about Latin American military dictatorships Rolls-Royce East Kilbride 2010s English-language films English-language documentary films