Gael García Bernal, the star of the Oscar-nominated film ‘NO’, will take part in a Q and A with Amnesty International to be broadcast live on YouTube at 3.45pm today (31 January 2013), ahead of the film’s UK launch on 8 February.  

 

The film documents the fall of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and stars García Bernal as René Saavedra, an advertising executive who devised the campaign that brought democracy to the South American country in 1988. 

 

The character René Saavedra is loosely based on the real-life advertising executive Eugenio García, who will join García Bernal in the live Q and A. They will be taking questions from the public submitted to Amnesty on Facebook  and on Twitter @AmnestyUK nbsp;using the hashtag #AskGael.

 

The film features many of the individuals who were banned from appearing in the Chilean media during Pinochet’s era. The critically acclaimed film also won the Art Cinema Prize in Cannes in 2012.

 

Chile, like a large number of South American countries, has yet to fully address the human rights abuses committed by the nation’s authorities during the 1970s and 80s. 

 

In 1973 General Pinochet led a bloody coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Salvador Allende. During his 17-year rule, Amnesty believes 1,100 people were people forcibly disappeared, more than 2,000 were unlawfully killed and several thousands were tortured by the military forces.

 

Hundreds of people are still awaiting justice for the human rights abuses committed against them. 

 

The Q and A will be broadcast live on YouTube nbsp;from 15.45 today.