Berlinale | Movies from Latin America
Memories From the Archives

South American films use archive material to tell stories of a past that has not yet been overcome. This still determines the power dynamics established in the region today.

The Paraguayan documentary film Bajo las banderas el sol / Under the Flags, the Sun (Panorama section) by Juanjo Pereira, a co-production involving Argentina, the USA, France and Germany, deals with the history of the dictatorship in Paraguay (1954-1989), the longest in Latin America. Led by General Alfredo Stroessner, who remained in power for 35 years, the coup was based on the army and the Colorado Party, which still rules the country today. Using images from archives around the world, the film shows different facets of the regime. These include political imprisonment and torture, the discrimination of the rural population and indigenous ethnic groups, the alliances with other dictatorships in Latin America – such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile – as part of “Operation Condor”, as well as their support from the USA.

The film shows the populist and conservative discourse not only in Paraguay, but also in other Latin American dictatorships that presented nationalist projects as “progress and development”. One of the largest Paraguayan construction projects of the time was the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant, which was built in collaboration with Brazil. In order to build it, entire villages had to be relocated - all with a considerable impact on the environment. Another focus of the film is Paraguay's relationship with Nazi officers who settled there after the Second World War. The film concentrates primarily on the figure of Josef Mengele, the doctor responsible for the deaths of thousands of Holocaust victims in Auschwitz. Carefully and creatively edited, the film compiles material from various archives into a well-composed narrative that brings many details of Paraguay's history to the screen.

Cinematic Memory Restored

The dictatorship in Brazil was characterised by controversial large-scale projects. In addition to the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant, the never-completed Transamazônica motorway was one of them, along with the gigantic social and ecological consequences of this construction project. The new road forms the backdrop to the documentary drama Iracema, uma transa amazônica / Iracema (Forum Special), which Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna filmed for ZDF in the 1970s and later brought to the cinema. Now digitally restored in 4K, the film about a lorry driver and a young indigenous prostitute is still highly topical and shows not only the failed project of the dictatorial rulers but also the destruction of the forest and slash-and-burn farming, the plantation business including cattle breeding in the region and the problems of a broad section of the population that still lives in miserable conditions today.

Rubber Extinguishes Life

The Peruvian documentary film La memoria de las mariposas / The Memory of Butterflies, shown in the Forum section with Portuguese participation, uses archive images and current analogue Super 8 footage to tell the story of rubber extraction in Amazonia, particularly in the Peruvian region of Putamayo. It also provides information about the extermination of the indigenous populations there through extreme violence. The director follows the trail of a photograph of two indigenous boys, Osmarino and Aredomi, who were abducted to London and exhibited, measured and studied like objects. The film reconstructs their story using the diaries and letters of Irish officer Roger Casement, who was in the region at the beginning of the 20th century. In tracing the stories of the two boys, the film deals with power relations and the social consequences of rubber extraction throughout Amazonia. It has left deep scars on the lives of the local indigenous population.

The End of the World in Writing

Using four letters written by indigenous people at the beginning of the 17th century, Cartas do absurdo / Letters from Absurd by Gabraz Sanna (Brazil, Forum Expanded) takes an experimental approach to the destruction of indigenous populations through forced labour and their European missionary work during the Brazilian colonial era. The letters are read out in Nheengantu (Tupi in the modern version). They tell of the end of a world whose dissolution began centuries ago. Two letters present the indigenous world view, the other two show the perspective of indigenous people who worked for the crown. In addition to the intensity of the letters that are read out, the cinematic depiction of a long boat journey towards a large city also provides some suspenseful film moments.

A Tender Memory

In Zizi (ou oração da jaca fabulosa) / Zizi (or Praying to a Fabulous Tree), shown at Forum Expanded, the Brazilian Felipe Bragança traces the life of his grandmother Zizi using images from private and public archives. She was a black and indigenous woman, as well as a midwife, seamstress and healer. The film is narrated by the director himself. In his recollection of various moments in the family's history, he combines private stories with the history of slavery and the extermination of indigenous people in Brazil. In a performance that mixes documentary film, poetic narrative and staging, the film brings together memories of a family that is thrown into disarray after the death of the grandmother for religious and political reasons. However, they finally come together in the courtyard of Zizi's former home and try to understand their losses. A special portrait that reflects the history of many Brazilian families.