The last video interview with César Luis Menotti and exclusive testimonials from Mario Alberto Kempes, Daniel Passarella, Mario Firmenich, Miguel Bonasso and Matías Bauso, among others, they are combined with archival material and various recreations to delve into the context of one of the darkest times in the country. A basic structure that recounts the various events that took place 46 years ago, in the 1978 Soccer World Cup, and that is part of the Disney Plus content catalog.
Throughout its four episodes in which football, horror and political intrigue intermingle, the production that was released on the streaming platform explores the background of the championship, an event marked by accusations of corruption and used by different political actors. of the moment for various purposes. The Pampa Films project, based on the book “78: Oral history of the World Cup“of Matías Bauso, has the duo Lucas Bucci and Tomás Sposato (Carmel: Who Killed María Marta?; The Menéndez Brothers) as directors and screenwriters.
As the episodes go by, the testimony of the protagonists, linked to the sporting event, becomes rarer with the story of the events that occurred in the country. A notable case was the statements of the former head of the group Montoneros, Mario Firmenich, ascribing to the guerrilla the assassination in August 1976 of General Omar Actis, president of World Self-Employed Entity ’78. In another sequence, reference is made to the famous photo of the Dutch journalist Frits Barend interviewing Jorge Rafael Videla at the World Cup closing dinner. In that meeting, for the first time, the dictator admitted the existence of missing Argentine citizens.
In addition to the testimonies of Firmenich and Kissinger, and the interview with Menotti, the series features the participation of many figures who had relevant roles during the World Cup. Among others, former soccer players from the Argentine National Team participate. Daniel Passarella and Mario Kempesas well as players and coaches of foreign teams, including the Dutch Johnny Rep, Ernie Brandts and René Van De Kerkhof. It also includes the testimonies of survivors of the ESMA detention center such as Raúl Cubas and Ricardo Coquet, while journalists such as Miguel Bonasso, Miriam Lewin, Víctor Hugo Morales and James Nielson.
These details were celebrated by Cristina Kirchner on his personal account on the social network It developed in our country in 1978, where Argentina won its first world championship. If you like soccer, you can’t miss it. If you like history, either. And if you like soccer and history, not to mention passion. football as text and the tragedy of the civil-military Dictatorship as a context, make this documentary a unique piece to know and understand. Congratulations to the filmmakers,” said the former president.
The response against the former vice president of Alberto Fernandez It didn’t take long to wait. His successor in office, the vice president Victoria Villarruel He did not hesitate to answer the Peronist leader. “For Firmenich the past is always the present. We are talking about terrorism and this terrorist is free and pontificating after murdering innocents. And to make matters worse, a former president who should be in prison starts recommending this shitty series about what happened in the 70s,” posted the running mate of Javier Milei and, harshly, he added: “Cristina, why don’t you go see this series of fourth but imprisoned in Ezeiza?” The lawyer, belonging to the LLA coalition, is recognized for her ties with soldiers of the time and visited , on more than one occasion, to the former dictator Videla in prison.
Beyond the historical and political controversies, the documentary also focused on sports controversies. The semifinal match between Argentina and Peru was one of the most questioned of the competition, as there were numerous rumors surrounding the home team’s 6-0 victory. In the third episode of the series, players from the Peruvian team such as José Velásquez, Ramón Quiroga and Germán Leguía They give their own versions of the events. On the one hand, they address the rumors of bribery so that the Andean team, already eliminated, would let the albicelestes win and thus secure their place in the final. On the other hand, they mention rumors of alleged bribes from the Brazilian team to the Peruvian team to resist Argentina in the defining match.
In dialogue with NEWS and reflecting on the miniseries, the director Lucas Bucci He confessed: “I had some knowledge of the military dictatorship, I am not a specialist by any means, but I found out about certain internal affairs in that de facto government that I did not know about,” and acknowledged: “My opinion about the Argentina Peru party, which is a match that sportily summarizes all the political problems that exist in this event, completely changed what the 78 World Cup was like, I had a story about what that match was about and when we started to investigate, we dedicated an entire chapter to it, I realize. realize that “These bases are much less viable and founded than it seemed at the beginning. My opinion turned like a tortilla.”
The screenwriter Thomas Sposatofor his part, stated: “We don’t usually talk about the team’s sporting achievements and the truth is that what the team did is quite impressive. The matches are impressive. Pausing the match against Peru and the political part, one Watch the ’78 final, the match against Holland, and it is an absolutely incredible match. On par with the final of the last World Cup played in Qatar, a match that you say: ‘it can’t be real’. I didn’t know that ’78 had matches. like that. Matches that have you with your heart in your mouth and things happen that if you write it in a fictional script it cannot be like that. Everything was defined with a stick, just as it was with Draw’s leg, the story could have changed. They surprised us.”
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