This heartbreaking film testimony, directed by Santiago Miter, emerges on the contemporary film scene to justify the more than 30,000 people kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured and murdered in this country between 1976 and 1983, producer Agustina Llambi recalled exclusively at LatinPress.
Registered in the catalog of the 43rd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, the film gives back to the public the taste of the 80s of the last century, when Argentina experienced the darkest moments of its history, followed by an escalation of the denunciations of the horrors perpetrated by the regime.
In this struggle for the truth and to uncover Pandora’s box – full of atrocities – the mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and other organizations appeared, at the same time as the National Commission for the Enforced Disappearances, decreed by the former, was created President Raúl Alfonsín (1983-1989).
The film is based precisely on this controversial and painful plot, which devoted itself to illustrating episodes “where all the feelings converge”, and which appeared to have been erased after the 1985 trial, according to the producer.
And at that moment, the film seems like a glimpse into the past, because “many young people who were born in democracy need to know about such events,” explained Llambi, who described the public reception as an impressive fact that “equally affected the people who experienced it and those who didn’t know.”
Even – he narrowed it – the delivery aroused interest in the story, relatives go to the archives where the trial documents are, and it is checked how the new generations discover a reality that was practically alien to them.
In this sense, the producer Santiago Cabante also highlighted the organization of screenings for high school students in cinemas as a consequence of this awakening of national curiosity.
PAIRING OF REALITY AND FICTION
Hundreds of archival materials, testimonies and even settings such as the courtroom underpin the truthfulness of the film’s narrative, which articulates reality and fiction as tools to achieve a coherent and attractive dramaturgy.
According to Llambi, they used all documentary elements to justify the victims while showing the protagonists/heroes who accomplished “this great feat” to conceive a humanistic film.
“The public function of the characters is conditioned by their inner circle and by the families of one and the other,” and that’s how we wanted to see it on screen, because of the 800 witnesses that the trial featured and the thousands of cases that were investigated alludes the audiovisual only to seven.
“It was a tremendous flow of information and stories, each of these testimonies was a film in itself,” the producer said, while recalling the atrocities these people experienced and the need to “select fragments to understand the impact.” achieve that they had in society” represented by the audience, the family and the judges.
BACK TO THE PAST
One of the film’s victories, in addition to its excellent billing, screenwriting and acting work, lies in its opportunity to recall the fact that Argentina was experiencing a turning point as it suffered the ravages of the power struggle with successive coups and dictatorships; that of 1976 “was the last, but not the only one”.
That’s what the producer Agustina Llambi said, who brought up the wounds of more than 40 years ago in a country that lacks options to “choose your own system, with problems, errors, like all over the world”, and that for a year and a half After the democratic revival, the 180-degree turn begins with this process.
The feature film chosen to turn on the projectors of the seventh art event in Havana, which will take place until December 11, exceeded one million viewers in Argentina, an unusual event after the difficulties caused by the short time Amazon Estudios the tour granted the room.
This was evidence of the need to return to those years, although the National Commission on Enforced Disappearances had already prepared a report that was made available to the executive and the population, because “it is one thing, a report of thousands reading from pages and another is listening to people telling what has happened to them in their own flesh”.
Likewise, he mentioned the influence of the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, but this act became an awakening, an ideal opportunity to open one’s eyes “in relation to what exactly happened, with all the lurid details, with a measure of sadism and indescribable evil”.
SMALL MEMORY TRIGGERS
Awarded at the 79th Mostra in Venice, Italy and the Festival of San Sebastian, Spain, the film has the elements to stand out from all angles. Since its premiere, it has received critical acclaim for aspects such as the script by Miter and Mariano Llinás, the music by Pedro Osuna, the photography by Javier Juliá, and the performances by Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner and Carlos Portaluppi, among others.
The setting of the film also stands out, moving without fanfare into the 80s, but with a wealth of details that awaken the viewer’s memories in every sequence.
To achieve this effect, Llambi explained, they carried out extensive table work and consulted photo, video and film archives of the time, because over the decades “the public space changed, the lighting, the layout of the streets, the cars, the clothes, everything.
“We wanted to do an ’80s that’s not loud, away from pop culture, so people can discover elements of that time and remember something, a time on a lower tone, focusing on the little things like the design of the house of concentrates on Julio Strassera, the breakfast cups, his office, the papers, the typewriter,” he explained.
Likewise, filming outdoors has been a challenge for the group due to two key issues: the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the temporary recovery that has left them resorting to special effects and set control.
Released in September and included in the Cuban Festival’s Feature Films category, the film qualifies as necessary, laying on the table the act of justice that managed to condemn the dictators Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Eduardo Massera and Orlando Ramón Agosti . Roberto Eduardo Viola, Armando Lambruschini, Omar Domingo Rubens, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jorge Anaya and Basilio Lami Dozo.
From the hands of the protagonists, the prosecutor Strassera and his deputy Luis Moreno, the film recreates the moments when the pursuit of the military chiefs by the armed forces and the subsequent civil trial, the result of which was a historic event and a blow to impunity, were obstructed .