IN HER PLACE on Netflix is a new period drama from Chile (org. title: El lugar de la otra). It’s based on a true story, so it’s basically a true crime movie – even if that seems crazy when you experience the story. Full of fascinating female characters and is made mostly by women. Read our full In Her Place movie review here!

IN HER PLACE is a new Netflix movie from Chile (org. title: El lugar de la otra). It’s a crime and period drama hybrid and based on the completely true story of a woman who murdered her lover in plain sight.

Overall, this movie is full of fascinating female characters, directed by a woman, and based on a book by a female author. In other words, it’s a movie we could not help but highlight here at Womentainment. Also, it’s just a really good movie. The runtime is just 89 minutes and the movie is Chile’s submission for the 2025 Oscars.

Continue reading our In Her Place movie review below. Find it on Netflix from October 11, 2024.

The life of a woman

We’re in Chile in 1955 when the popular author, María Carolina Geel, kills her lover in the middle of a hotel restaurant. Surrounded by witnesses and featuring a famous woman, the case understandably captivates all of Chile. Not least Mercedes, the shy paralegal and secretary of the judge in charge of the case.

Mercedes lives a life of practical servitude at home. She gets up and prepares breakfast only to see her husband and sons eat every last crumb before she has a chance to sit down. Also, she’s expected to do all the cooking and cleaning, which makes her as much a maid as a family member.

For the record, I recognize that this was (and still is) the life of many women. And her husband and sons clearly love her. They just don’t help her or even recognize all the work she puts into making their lives better and easier. Also, she does have a full-time job herself, which is where she finds herself.

She’s respected and valued at work and is even sent to the writer’s apartment to retrieve clothes for the apparent murderer. Once in the apartment of writer María Carolina Geel, Mercedes sees what her life as a woman could also be. This makes her question her own life and identity as a woman in society.

She starts using the apartment as her own oasis of freedom. As much as it seems like things are getting out of hand, as she goes to the apartment more and more, I couldn’t help but sympathize with her. Understand her even!

The true story of María Carolina Geel

Just before the end credits, you will be seeing a lot of real newspaper articles from the 1950s. This shows the real Maria Carolina Geel and how the story was covered when it happened. Actually, María Carolina Geel was her pen name and what she was known under in public.

Her birthname was Georgina Silva Jiménez, but no one used this for coverage of the murder case, so I won’t either.

And yes, everything you hear about the murder case in this Netflix movie is true. Including what happens to her in terms of punishment and how public figures reacted. I was certain elements had been embellished, but no.

María Carolina Geel did shoot her lover, Roberto Pumarino Valenzuela, in the Crillón Hotel on April 14, 1955. As we hear about their relationship, it’s clear they weren’t a good match. He wanted her to be everything she wasn’t and she made it abundantly clear that she would not change to fit his expectations.

The woman killed a man, which cannot and should not be excused, but the way she took up space and demanded the life she wanted, was fascinating. The real María Carolina Geel passed away at the age of 82 (from dementia and Alzheimer’s) in 1996.

Witness the lives of women in 1950s Chile

As mentioned several times already, In Her Place is based on a true story. It takes place in Chile, but the story is undoubtedly very universal of how women lived in the 1950s. Or rather, how they were viewed and expected to act. Even forced to act at times.

Watching it today, I suspect most people (especially many women) will be able to relate to the frustration of our main protagonist. She is better and smarter than every man in her life, but can’t be truly recognized as such. Simply because she’s a woman.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good men portrayed in this movie. Both the kind of man who does recognize her worth and those who are artists and accept that life is more than what society expects and demands of us.

In Her Place is a wonderful snapshot of a different time. One that may not feel as different as you’d expect here 70 years later.

Watch In Her Place (2024) on Netflix now!

In Her Place was directed by Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi. She has previously worked in documentary filmmaking and was nominated for two Oscars. Most recently, for the 2023 documentary The Eternal Memory (org. title: La memoria infinita) and before that for the 2020 documentary The Mole Agent (org. title: El agente topo). For the latter, she shared the nominations with producer Marcela Santibanez.

With this Academy Award track record, it’s no wonder Chile has decided to make In Her Place their official submission for the 2025 “Best International Feature Film” Oscar.

The script for this movie comes from writers Inés Bortagaray and Paloma Salas. This movie is Maite Alberdi’s reinterpretation of one of the stories from the book “Las Homicidas” by Alia Trabucco Zerán. It stars Elisa Zulueta as the paralegal Mercedes and Francisca Lewin as the author and murderer María.

In Her Place has already screened at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, and now we can all enjoy it on Netflix. And you should. You really should!

Director: Maite Alberdi
Screenplay: Inés Bortagaray & Paloma Salas
Cast: Elisa Zulueta, Francisca Lewin, Marcial Tagle, Pablo Macaya, Gabriel Urzúa

Official plot:

Chile, 1955. After famous writer María Carolina Geel murders her lover, the case captivates Mercedes, a shy secretary, triggering an unexpected connection between the two women.

Photo credits: Diego Araya Corvalán / Netflix