‘The Meltdown’ movie review: a deeply melancholy, enveloping eco-thriller

Manuela Martelli’s *The Meltdown* follows nine-year-old Ines at a Chilean ski resort in the uneasy years after Augusto Pinochet left office. Through a child’s limited understanding, the film shows how political violence and disappearances can persist beneath the surface of peacetime, making it a restrained thriller about a country still confronting its past.

Ines befriends Hanna, a 15-year-old skiing prodigy, who then goes missing as hotel staff appear unconcerned. Hanna’s mother Lina searches for answers and forms a close bond with Ines, who has been kept from the truth. An Antarctic iceberg displayed at the 1992 World Fair provides a symbol of Chile’s public image of progress amid unresolved national wounds; Maya O’Rourke’s performance as Ines anchors the story.