Desintegración y justicia en el cine contemporáneo argentino - by Copertari, Gabriela (original) (raw)
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In Argentina, the last military dictatorship ruled between 1976 and 1983. Since the return of democracy in December of 1983, a variety of means have—to a large extent—made it possible to unravel and represent the horror endured during the years of the so-called “National Reorganization Process.” The aim of this presentation is to address the different discourse strategies used in motion pictures representing the kidnapping, torture, and forced disappearance of persons during the last military dictatorship. To this end, I have selected Argentine films that, having been produced in different decades, allow me to trace an historical evolution in the treatment of this topic. These films portray the adaptation to life in illegal detention centers in different ways. From an analytical perspective, my starting point in each chapter is a “memory cycle” (Da Silva Catela 2006), a concept I shall often resort to, since it defines the different socio-historical periods in post-dictatorship Argentina.
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Over 453 films have been made focusing on the topic of the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), otherwise known worldwide as the Dirty War. This time period is characterized by the vile human rights abuses committed by the military junta against those who opposed the government, leading to the disappearances of 30.000 people, many of whom left children behind. These children were often forced to grow up, giving up their childhood, due to their parents' militancy. In the national story of the dictatorship, these children's stories and experiences have often been forgotten. This thesis will investigate the portrayal of the last Argentine dictatorship through cinema, from the perspective of children who grew up during the dictatorship, often children of the disappeared. These films often focus on the recreation of identity, their disappeared parents, and the loss of childhood innocence. Through fiction and documentary film, these filmmakers are able to use a self-reflexive process to recreate their identity and self-represent their own stories, rather than fitting into the narratives forced upon them.
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This article examines a recent trend in Argentine post-dictatorial cinema that has not received sufficient critical attention: post-2000 fictional films by second-generation film-makers that go back to a child's or a teenager's perspective, and to an 'archaic' pre-1990s format. By focusing on a political thriller that I find paradigmatic of this recent trend, Gastón Biraben's Cautiva/Captive , I argue that these films (which I call 'iconic fictions') should not be read as additional examples of contemporary second-generation narratives. Instead, I propose that their formal exception attests to an intragenerational tension regarding the representation of recent history (in particular, regarding the representation of 1970s political activism). In these films, the use of fiction (and of a child's or a teenager's perspective) allows for a predominance of iconicity over indexicality -a predominance that entails crucial ideological connotations for contemporary Argentina and that demands a re-examination of the efficacy of representing history through a child's or a teenager's lens.
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While much has been written about Argentine political documentary during the 1960s and 1970s, less has been said about post-dictatorship political documentaries. This article will consider the films Cuarentena: Exilio y regreso (1983) and Juan, como si nada hubiera sucedido (1987) by Carlos Echeverría, an independent filmmaker who focuses on the return to democracy and reflections on the recent past. Cuarentena: Exilio y regreso is about Osvaldo Bayer's experiences and fervent desire to return to his homeland. Osvaldo Bayer is an Argentine writer who was exiled in Germany during the dictatorship. Juan, como si nada hubiera sucedido is one of the most important Argentine films of the last thirty years, as it is among the first documentaries to address the subject of the forced disappearance of people during the last military dictatorship. The film contains interviews with military officers who held high positions during the period, asking them about the roles they played in political disappearances.