Tiempo de ausencia
Spain,
1984, 90 min
Shown in 1985
CREDITS
- dir
-
Rudolfo Kuhn
- prod
-
José G. Jacoste
- scr
-
Osbaldo Bayer
-
COMMENTS
Rodolfo Kuhn in person.
The subject matter is political repression and the “disappeared.” Missing did it fictionally, by focusing on the plight of a father in search of his son disappeared in Chile. Absence looks at this problem in Argentina through the powerful testimony of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who through their courageous weekly demonstrations brought the plight of their disappeared sons and daughters to the eyes of the world. Few documentaries combine intelligence and emotion to the degree Absence does. It features testimonials from Marta—rich, Catholic, now in exile in Spain; Antonia and Maria, the grandmothers whose drama reveals the blackest chapter of the military dictatorship: the disappearance of children; and Hebe Pastor de Bonafini, working-class housewife and president of the Mothers Movement, whose powerful testimony traces the epic struggle to conquer the Plaza, asserting, thus, the mothers’ unbreakable faith in life as a resounding answer to the “Argentinian death” instituted by the military in 1976.
—Denis W. De La Roca
FACTOID #384
Henry Fonda attended the SFIFF in 1967 to receive a tribute for his work in classics like The Grapes of Wrath and 12 Angry Men. Daughter Jane showed up in 1975 for a tribute of her own. And her brother Peter made two Festival appearances, one as a guest in 1963 and another to accompany the film Nadja (in which he gleefully portrayed Dr. Van Helsing) in 1995.
