Memoria del saqueo
Argentina / France,
2004, 118 min
Shown in 2005
CREDITS
- dir
-
Fernando E. Solanas
- prod
-
Fernando E. Solanas
- scr
-
Fernando E. Solanas
- cam
-
Alejandro Fernández Mouján, Fernando E. Solanas
- editor
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Juan C. Macías, Fernando E. Solanas
- mus
-
Gerardo Gandini
"The government must resign! Kick them out!" In December 2001, Argentina was in a state of siege—thousands of people filled the streets banging on pots and pans, protesting decades of corrupt leadership that resulted in devastating economic ruin. Director Fernando Solanas (Tangos, The Exile of Gardel, SFIFF 1986; The Journey, SFIFF 1993) opens with an astounding scene and, in ten incisive chapters, shows how the Argentine government systematically betrayed its people through disastrous policies, saddling the country with "neverending debt." Interviews with everyday people reveal the human cost—extreme poverty, chronic unemployment, starvation and lost life savings. Solanas coins the term "mafiocracy" to describe the people—from politicians and magistrates to businessmen and union leaders—who took kickbacks and made corrupt deals with astonishing impunity. For years, valuable state-owned utilities and industries were privatized and sold for a pittance, a process many Latin Americans call neoliberalism. Startling editing, compelling footage, pointed chapter headings—"A Chronicle of Treason," The Republic Deteriorates"—and the intense on-camera presence of Solanas himself convey his fury towards those responsible for Argentina's social disaster, including corporations, the International Monetary Fund and even a complicit, relentlessly upbeat media. The film's forceful viewpoint and examination of the causes of Argentina's collapse harkens back to Solanas's seminal 1968 debut The Hour of the Furnaces.
—Chuleenan Svetvilas
FACTOID #50
The San Francisco International Film Festival, which kicked off December 4, 1957, is the longest continuously running film festival in the Americas.
