Imagining Argentina (film)

Imagining Argentina is a 2003 Spanish-British-American drama historical film written and directed by Christopher Hampton and starring Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson, Leticia Dolera and Rubén Blades. It is based on the award-winning homonymous novel by Lawrence Thornton. It was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Film Festival.

The film, centered on a couple living through the ominous last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), depicts graphic images of suffering, such as rape and torture. The closing caption states that around 30,000 Argentines disappeared during the beginning and end of the regime.

Plot synopsis

During the last civil-military dictatorship in Argentina, the military government is abducting those opposed to its rule. Cecilia, a dissident journalist living in Buenos Aires, is kidnapped by the secret police to join the ranks of the disappeared. Cecilia had earlier published a provocative article in her outrage over the forced disappearance of students protesting the bus fares.

As her husband Andreas, a theatre director, begins to search frantically for her, he realizes that he has acquired psychic power that enables him to predict the future. This not only puts him in high demand by those who have also lost a loved one, it helps Andreas to foresee what happens to his wife and other detainees. At one point, Andreas visits the Naval Mechanics School, the notorious torture center.

Cast

• Antonio Banderas as Carlos Rueda
• Emma Thompson as Cecilia Rueda
• Leticia Dolera as Teresa Rueda
• María Canals Barrera as Esme Palomares
• Rubén Blades as Silvio Ayala
• Mariana Seligmann as Guzman Tochter
• Andreas Tang as himself

Reception

Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian wrote: "well, what can I say about something destined to be a cult classic of awfulness? Imagining Argentina is an excruciatingly misjudged attempt to impose a layer of occult spirituality on an important political subject... The spectacle of Banderas exercising his sensitive magic powers, intercut with Thompson getting horribly raped and beaten - with close-ups on her droll, quizzical face contorted in agony - is truly wince-making".^[1]

References

External links

• Official Site
• Imagining Argentina at the Internet Movie Database
• Imagining Argentina at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dutch FilmWorks B.V. (in Dutch)
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