FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
Directed & Written by: Albertina Carri. Produced by: Barry Ellsworth. Director of Photography: Catalina Fernández. Edited by: Alejandro Almirón. Music by: Ryuichi Sakamoto & Charly Garcia. Released by: Women Make Movies. Country of Origin: Argentina/USA. 89 min. Not Rated. With: Analia Couceyro.
Albertina Carri, daughter of left-wing revolutionaries, was four years old when her parents
"disappeared," victims of Argentina's Dirty War. Now, 31 years later, she pieces together her
family history and the story of their disappearance. Instead of turning the camera on herself, Carri
hires an actress. "My name is Analia Couceyro. I play the part of Albertina Carri," Couceyro tells
the audience, revealing, from the start, that even documentary film, like memory, is fabricated.
Throughout, Carri reconstructs scenes with stop-action animation featuring Playmobil
figurines. The plastic figures hangout by the pool, barbecue and dance. Like the use of the
actress, the animation puts distance between the viewer and the film. However, this also
underlines the fact that it is simply impossible for a child to accept that her parents have simply
vanished. At one point, Carri says, "To develop yourself without the one who gave you life
becomes an obsession." She needs to construct a narrative about her family life in order to have
an identity.
Carri also visits the neighborhood where she lived when her parents were taken. Several of the
neighbors remember her family, and one claims that they were all blonde. The audience knows
that Carri is a brunette, and like her, we are puzzled by this assertion. Also puzzling is that the
neighbors have little to say on the topic of the kidnapping. Ultimately, Carri's questions are left
unanswered and she is forced to forge a new family with her film crew and cast of one, all of
whom sport blonde wigs by the end of the film.
Although the filmmaking is personal, the use of an actress, footage of the film’s production, and
the continual awareness of the camera diffuse the emotional impact. However, on an intellectual
level, the film is just challenging enough to keep us engaged while Carri explores the
impossibility of coming to terms with the inexplicable loss of a parent. "It's something that
doesn't have an end," says one interviewee. "That's the most painful; there's no closure." Caitlin Shamberg, former programming associate for the Mill Valley Film Festival
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