The history of Argentine cinema is inseparable from the country’s political past. The New Wave and the entire Argentine post-war culture are deeply intertwined with the ideas of Peronism—a third way distinct from the communist, American, and European ideological frameworks. The renowned “Third Cinema”, a term first coined by Argentine filmmaker Fernando Solanas, stands as a crucial concept in this regard. However, the true people’s director of the 1960s and 1970swas Leonardo Favio. Having experienced life in an orphanage and prison, Favio was also a legendary singer, poet, musician, and genre filmmaker. One of his most notable works, Juan Moreira (1973), which opens this programme, remained Argentina’s highest-grossing film for many years. It tells the story of a folk hero set against the backdrop of 19th-century Latin America’s struggle for independence.

An essential bridge between the “new wave” and later generations is Hugo Santiago’s Invasion (1969), co-written with Jorge Luis Borges and based on his story. This mysterious science fiction thriller, depicting an unknown assailant invading a city whose inhabitants resist in vain, has a fate as dramatic as Argentina’s tumultuous history. Persecution of the “new wave” directors began in the 1960s; Hugo Santiago emigrated, and during the 1978 military coup, the original film negatives were stolen and destroyed. The version presented in this programme was only restored in 1999.

The central—and most painful—event in Argentina’s late 20th-century history was the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. In addition to death squads, witch hunts, and repression, one of its direct consequences was mass emigration, best captured by Fernando Solanas in his Paris-shot Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1985). In this film, the characters try to convey their experiences by staging a “tangedy,” where the historical tragedy (and its comedic side) is expressed through the national culture of tango, encapsulating the pain and hopes of those who left and those who stayed. The existentialist noir Man Facing Southeast (1986) by Eliseo Subiela, a disciple of Favio, also reflects the societal state and trauma inflicted by the dictatorship, becoming one of Argentina’s cult films of the 1980s.

In 2001-2002, Argentina faced a severe economic crisis, bringing new voices to the cinematic scene and forming what is now known as “new Argentine cinema wave.” The tragicomic indie hit Pizza, Beer, Cigarettes (1998) was a precursor to Argentine minimalism in the 21st century.

The programme concludes with two films representing different poles of the renowned “new cinema.” One is a baroque narrative experiment that inherits Borges’ literary explorations, presented by Laura Citarella’s four-hour metaphysical detective story Trenque Lauquen—one of the most notable arthouse films of 2022 worldwide. The accumulated qualities of Argentine minimalism become evident in Jauja (2014), an anti-western by globally recognized director LisandroAlonso, starring Viggo Mortensen. This film takes us back to the 19th century, to the origins of Argentine history, essential for understanding it as both a tragedy and a comedy.

The programme was made with the support of the Embassy of Argentina in Russia; we express our special gratitude to Virginia Iribarne, head of the Embassy’s cultural section, who supported the programme.

Alexey Artamonov,
Programme Curator