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.

Bajo las banderas el sol / Under the Flags, the Sun. Paraguay/Argentina/USA/France/Germany 2025. Director Juanjo Pereira. Berlinale Panorama | Photo (detail): © Berlinale Panorama
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.
Iracema, uma transa amazônica / Iracema. Brazil/Germany 1975. Director Jorge Bodanzky, Orlando Senna. Pictured: Edna de Cássia. Berlinale Forum | Photo (detail): © Arquivo Jorge Bodanzky IMS
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.
La memoria de las mariposas / The Memory of the Butterflies. Peru/Portugal 2025. Director Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski. Berlinale Forum | Photo (detail): © Miti Films / MAA Cambridge / Comunidade de Puerto Arica
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.
Cartas do Absurdo / Letters from Absurd. Brazil 2025. Director Gabraz Sanna. Berlinale Forum Expanded | Photo (detail): © Eu morri em 1999.