When global pressure forced Augusto Pinochet's dictatorial regime to soften its stance on political advertising in the late '80s, it would have been easy for the downtrodden Chileans to rally around a slogan full of rage and hatred for their oppressor. But the slogan they chose wasn't angry or reactionary. It was peaceful, and it was optimistic: “Joy is coming.”

Giving a quietly moving performance, Gael Garcia Bernal (Letters to Juliet, The Limits of Control) plays the advertising executive in charge of the campaign that gently nudged Pinochet from his totalitarian roost in 1990. Taking advantage of cheerful, upbeat images and messaging, Chile's Coalition of Parties for NO did something that should be impossible in a world as cynical as ours. They changed it through the power of positive thinking.