Narrative Strategies of Post-Genocide Argentine Filmmaking: the decade of the 1980s

Abstract

This work is part of a broader study. This article analyzes Argentine films about the genocide perpetrated by the country’s last military dictatorship (1976-1983). The focus is on the films produced during the 1980s, specifically those made between 1984 and 1989. Generally these films have been analyzed from an aesthetic perspective, or else from a chronological standpoint that connects their historical context to the design aspects of individual films, their mise-en-scène. Central to this latter approach has been what is termed a prevailing “theory of the two demons”. This approach is generally valid, however this article posits that in their narrative strategies— that is, their plots, ideas, and stories— Argentinean films from the late- 1980s present a wealth of elements that exceed such narrow theorizing, in the process enabling comparisons and contrasts with other studies of the country’s genocide.