While a restless toddler jumped on the bed, I watched pedazos of this documentary last night on Voces on my local PBS station.

Special Circumstances follows Chilean exile Héctor Salgado as he returns to Chile from the USA to seek and confront the men who imprisoned him and tortured and killed his friends after the coup of 1973. Through his journey, audiences will come to understand the legal, political and social obstacles standing in the way of a nation’s attempt, thirty years later, to overcome its brutal history. Throughout five years of determined digging, Héctor finds old friends and family members, victims’ families, survivors and others who express divided and passionate opinions about Chile’s past.The resulting film not only tells a dramatic story of Héctor’s encounters with former military personnel, but also gives audiences a rare look at contemporary Chile and the nation’s efforts to reconcile its troubling history.