Review of The Mole Agent (2020) by Dan_B — 06 Mar 2021

(espaañol / English).

Extracto El agente topo (por Netflix) Este documental le sigue los pasos a Sergio, uno señor de ochenta y pico contratado por una agencia de detectives para infiltrarse en un geriátrico como residente e investigar cómo(espaañol / English).

Extracto.

El agente topo (por Netflix).

Este documental le sigue los pasos a Sergio, uno señor de ochenta y pico contratado por una agencia de detectives para infiltrarse en un geriátrico como residente e investigar cómo tratan a la madre de una clienta de la agencia internada allí.

¿Qué es real, ficcional o metaficcional en este documental? ¿Hasta dónde están dispuestos a llegar los documentalistas para filmar aquello y a aquéllos que investigan? ¿Cuáles son los límites éticos?

Lamentablemente todo El agente topo está montado sobe un engaño. Más que un infiltrado de una agencia de detectives, el “agente” Sergio es un infiltrado de la directora, que cambia el foco y comienza a interesarse por los diálogos y testimonios de las engañadas ancianas del geriátrico. Terminé de ver este documental con una sensación de incomodidad cercana a la indignación: la de haber presenciado una desleal invasión a la privacidad de un grupo de ancianas para exhibir su dolor y servir como instrumentos de la directora y su dispositivo cinematográfico, de un experimento. Y con la perplejidad de que casi nadie se haya planteado estas cuestiones éticas o las minimizaran, sobre todo los críticos y los jurados de los festivales.

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Abstract.

The Mole Agent (by Netflix).

This documentary follows in the footsteps of Sergio, an eighty-something man hired by a detective agency to infiltrate a nursing home as a resident and investigate how the mother of an agency client hospitalized there is treated.

What is real, fictional or metafictional in this documentary? How far are documentary makers willing to go to film that and those they investigate? What are the ethical limits?

Unfortunately, the entire agent mole is mounted on a hoax. More than an infiltrator from a detective agency, the "agent" Sergio is an infiltrator of the director, who changes the focus and begins to be interested in the dialogues and testimonies of the deceived elderly women of the nursing home. I finished watching this documentary with a feeling of discomfort close to indignation: that of having witnessed a disloyal invasion of the privacy of a group of elderly women to display their pain and serve as instruments of the director and her cinematographic device, of an experiment. And with the perplexity that hardly anyone has raised these ethical questions or downplayed them, especially the critics and festival juries.

Review.

A lady (who does not appear on camera) hires the services of a detective agency to find out how they treat her mother, admitted to a nursing home. This documentary follows in the footsteps of Sergio, an eighty-something man hired by the agency to infiltrate the nursing home as a resident and carry out the investigation.

This documentary by the Chilean Maite Alberdi raises numerous elements for analysis and debate, some frankly uncomfortable.

I have read notes about how this documentary was filmed and a report to its director that were far from reassuring me.

The detective agency and its director are real, as well as the casting they carry out to choose Sergio as a mole. The "mission" entrusted to him is also real. The nursing home had previously accepted the presence of cameras for the filming of a documentary.

But unfortunately the entire Mole Agent is mounted on a hoax. More than an infiltrator of the detective agency, Sergio is an infiltrator of the director, who changes the focus and begins to be interested in the dialogues and testimonies that he generates with the elderly women in the nursing home. And like any mole, he deceives about his identity and his goals to all the companions who begin to bond with him, who by the way is a charming person.

To what extent do these women know that what they express (and to an impostor) is being filmed? Frail people, some of them already with signs of cognitive decline.

The detective moments are hilarious and the dialogues with the old ladies range from the picturesque to the moving.

But the purpose of this whole montage is not clear to me:

1) Reflect the daily life of a nursing home?

2) Give a voice to people who generally don't have it?

3) A testimony to sensitize the audience about how the elderly in general suffer in these institutions of loneliness, depression and abandonment by their families? Is this really a novelty? I finished watching this documentary with a feeling of discomfort close to indignation: that of having witnessed a disloyal invasion of the privacy of a group of elderly women to display their pain and serve, in short, as instruments for showing off the director and his cinematic device, from an experiment. And with the perplexity that almost no one has raised these ethical questions or minimizes them, starting with the critics and the festival juries.