The peculiarities of Argentine society mean that, although productions are made in other countries that address its recent political past, this formula becomes successful here. “The Argentine has a genealogical drive for which he needs to become historic based on moments that have an epic. An example can be the World Cup, where we couldn’t think about it without talking about the other two. It wasn’t the World Cup, it was ‘the third’, something that didn’t make any historical sense except for us because it made up a story”, explains Lutereau.
For this reason, the formula of retropolitical cultural products finds in our country an ecosystem conducive to growth. “In all countries this can happen to look at the past, but Argentina has, not only from art, but as a people, an awareness of memory that is different from others,” adds Ávila.
We Argentines are constantly looking to the past, an exercise that was strengthened in the 1980s with the return of democracy and in which art played a leading role. “It is part of our identity. In Argentina, cinema also has the role of keeping memory alive and fulfills a social function”, says Pablo Yotich, director of “Los Bastardos”, a retropolitical film released in March of this year that narrates the behind the scenes and disputes in the town of Merlo in 2015. “As a director, I think we have the commitment to tell our story, because a town without memory is a town that has no future,” he reflects.
Unlike other countries, politics is not a foreign subject for Argentines. “It is a country that is easily politicized. Politics does not pass us by”, describes Fara. In addition, national history is rich in transcendental events and social transformations that left a deep mark on society and that have seasonings that make them ideal for recreation, whether in the movies or in a series. From military dictatorships to economic and political crises, the Argentine people have experienced moments of intense upheaval and change. And contrary to other countries, the national being wants to investigate them, remember them and not leave them forgotten. “We have a huge historical review of our past in every way. I think we owe it to idiosyncratic issues and also to the influence of psychoanalysis. We went from a permanent revision of the individual to a revision of the social. We Argentines are especially reflective”, the screenwriter and actress Marta Betoldi tells NOTICIAS.
The interpreter was part of “Contractions”, a play that is part of the “Theater for Identity” cycle, the theatrical movement that seeks to collaborate with the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in the search for the almost 400 grandchildren who still do not know their true identity today. When performing in different countries, the artist notes the differences in how the past is approached in each one: “It happened to me in Spain or Chile to do performances where it was more difficult to achieve the point of reflection in the public. Not everyone has the openness to say, for example, ‘this happened here, there were people who were kidnapped, babies disappeared’. There are issues that are not touched by idiosyncrasy. It is neither better nor worse, it is different, ”she explains. In our country, far from wanting to omit or avoid talking about certain topics, the public is eager for a constant return to history and the search for answers and new perspectives and thus more and more productions come to recount that past.
Interaction. In such a politicized and conscious society, each new production of this style generates public debate and even complaints. With “Argentina 1985″, for example, controversies were sown about the cut that was made and what was included and what was not from the script. “I read all the reactions to the movie. And there is love and discomfort. There is a bit of Argentine self-love for what was achieved. And those who get angry because it doesn’t fit their personal narrative. But I celebrate all that because it extends the life of the film, it generates an intense debate. The cutest thing is this discussion. At one point, the film no longer belongs to us,” said Axel Kuschevatzky, producer of the film that was nominated for the Oscars. Beyond the tone of the debate, which due to that same Argentine idiosyncrasy can become scandalous, artistic products thus fulfill a social role of encouraging people to talk about certain topics and forcing us to rethink them and learn more about them. “It is not about saying such a thing happened, such a thing did not happen. They are points of view and that is what is interesting”, says Yotich. Thus, not only is memory promoted through the work, but also discussion about other views of what was shown on the screen or even omissions is encouraged.
“One takes a position and decides based on that, knowing that like everything that is the writing of history, it will have totally different nuances or positions on the same fact. That is inevitable”, says Ávila, who makes a fundamental distinction: “When one reconstructs a story, one also takes licences, that is why it is based on real events and it is not that ‘they are real facts’, because subjectivity is inevitable when one shoot something.”
There are even licenses such as adding fictitious characters within that real world recreated in fiction in order to make the audiovisual story more bearable and tell the story that is intended. In “December 2001” there are two political operators, one from the Alliance and the other from Peronism, played by Diego Cremonesi and Nicolás Furtado, respectively, who did not exist in real life, but are necessary to make the story flow.
Thus, driven by the current situation that surrounds them and forces them to seek answers and models and by the very way of being national to question the past, accept it and debate about it, Argentines turn to the phenomenon of retropolitics. Offers on screen are not lacking and the discussions that were and will be after the premiere of each of these audiovisual pieces either.
