screens for “Nunca Más”: notes on contemporary argentine cinema

Abstract

This study takes as its starting point contemporary Argentine cinema and its resonance with national cinema produced in the post-dictatorship neoliberal context, designated as Nuevo Cine Argentino (NCA), and set against the amnesiac reconciliation proposed by the Carlos Menem government. While the NCA was revitalized by the country’s democratization—bringing techno-aesthetic innovations in confluence with the enduring post-dictatorship memory—the strand of national cinematography that repudiates totalitarian systems is reinforced in 2023, due to the election of a president who minimizes the effects of the dictatorship, Javier Milei. The research examines aspects of meaning and potential effects in the films Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre, 2022) and Los delincuentes (Rodrigo Moreno, 2023), both widely circulated before and after Milei’s election. Symptomatically, when faced with attacks perpetrated by repressive policies and denials of dictatorial violence, Argentine cinema reacts by putting antidemocratic evils on display.