So it’s two politics heavy films this week and unlike Detention, this one is completely serious and actually worthy of its subject matter. It covers the so-called Trial of the Juntas in 1985 when Argentina put on trial the leaders of the military dictatorship that controlled the country from 1976 to 1983. It’s superbly crafted and seems to have been deliberately patterned after the best known political thrillers with a strong American influence. The only downside is that you keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something truly awful to happen, and I suppose this film is too faithful to the real events to invent something so dramatic as that. What’s most inspiring to me is that this was the most watched Argentine film in its year of release, no mean feat for a legal drama that goes on for almost two and a half hours.
In 1985, despite public prosecutor Julio César Strassera’s efforts to dodge the responsibility, he is assigned to lead the civilian prosecution of the military junta after the military courts declined to press charges. His deputy is Luis Moreno Ocampo, whose help he initially turns down because he comes from a military family. Ocampo manages to convince him however that his involvement would give the case more legitimacy in the eyes of the general public. They run into more difficulties when they try to recruit lawyers to join their team as everyone is afraid of getting involved. Finally they resort to inexperienced but idealistic young graduates and send them throughout the country to collect evidence and interview victims. The team and Strassera receive numerous death threats. Knowing that the police were involved in the wrongdoing, Strassera is reluctant to accept their protection. As victim after victim appear in court to testify about the suffering and torture they went through, they begin to change the minds of even the conservative elements of society who believed that the generals’ actions were necessary to fight against Socialist and left-wing Peronist guerillas.
Political thrillers are necessarily complex films as they must encompass a large cast of characters and involve a lot of history that audiences may not be familiar with. Director Santiago Mitre must therefore be commended for being to get the essentials across without dumbing down or trivializing the subject. The film avoids specific details of dates, the number of victims and events during the military dictatorship. It does show the defendants and chooses a small selection of victims, portraying their testimonies in detail. Everything feels very authentic, with the trial itself being shot in the real courtroom that was used, and the film doesn’t hesitate to include very long monologues in court. I can’t be certain but the speeches are so long and so detailed that they must at least be partially lifted from the real ones. It’s not easy but the film manages to communicate the enormity of the effort it takes to collect all of the evidence and how airtight court cases are built around unglamorous and tedious grunt work.
The threat of violence hangs over the many months the trial takes, adding suspense to the proceedings. Given that the threats specifically target Strassera’s two children, the sense of danger is palpable. I like that they are smart enough to take reasonable precautions, being wary of police protection but cognizant enough to have the family sent elsewhere during the most critical period. Even so, it feels off when nothing actually happens and there is no big twist. The trial goes on pretty much as planned, which must be historically accurate, yet feels a little unsatisfying on a dramatic level. Thankfully Mitre uses humor instead to liven up the drama. Early on for example he has his son discreetly surveil his daughter for fear that her new boyfriend may be spying on his family. Other fun moments are when they interview the candidates for the legal team and some of them are more familiar with popular culture than political history. Apparently the real Strassera has a touch of this childish mockery in him as the end credits include a photograph of him making a funny face at the accused in court!
As is only right, this film is primarily meant for Argentine audiences and I cannot even begin to imagine how cathartic it must have been for their people to watch this in the cinema. The impact is necessarily not as great on us and it requires some reading up on history to understand why this trial was so important. Viewed within the proper context, I do believe this is one of the best political dramas I’ve seen and given that it is apparently the first time a civilian court has ever convicted a military junta anywhere in the world, it truly is an inspiration to us all.