Three Chilean woman reveal their experiences of being female refugees in Britain.

This half-hour video portrait of three Chilean women offers a compelling insight into not just the difficulties of life in exile, but the additional burden of being a female refugee. All three fled their homeland in the wake of the 1973 military coup that began Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. Offered asylum in Britain, they arrived in what they were surprised to find was a "racist country" where the "colour of your skin is quite important". Removed from the support network normally provided by an extended family, and with language tuition and job opportunities privileging the men, it was all too easy for them to feel imprisoned in this unfamiliar land.

Produced by Wide Angle Productions with funding from Greater London Arts, this film listens and helps give voice to marginalised women rarely represented in mainstream media. It makes good use of Super-8 film footage of both Britain and Chile to add flavour to the videoed interview segments, for which the filmmakers have clearly won their subjects' trust.

Since the military coup in 1973 approximately one million people have left
Chile to live in exile; over three thousand came to Britain. Focusses on the
personal experience of three Chilean women in Britain. From the early struggles
with language, against racism and isolation, they trace their individual
journeys toward a gradual gaining of strength and independence. Interspersed
are glimpses of the country they left behind - a montage of film postcards sent
by another exile who has recently returned to Chile.