¡Viva! presents: Safe Passage
classified 15 SPlease note: This was screened in June 2017
Director Diego Corsini’s tense political thriller uses real events as the basis of his provocative journey through the lives, loves, and losses of political activists during Argentina’s Dirty War, laying bare the devastating after effects of an oppressive regime on future generations.
In contemporary Spain Mario is struggling to care for his father, Miguel, whose dementia often transports him back to his tumultuous youth in 1970s Argentina. Through the memories of one of their contemporaries, Mario discovers a hidden truth - that his parents were radical activists. Transported back we see a young Miguel (played by Chino Darín, son of fab Argentine actor Ricardo Darín) and his upper-class girlfriend Diana when they were idealistic revolutionaries operating under the end of the Peron government, making the deadly transition from peaceful protest to clandestine armed struggle.
Drawing on genuine experiences of repressed trauma and collective memory of the dictatorship, and of the open wounds created by the forced disappearances perpetrated by the military regime, Corsini paints an emotive and personal depiction of loss. Thoughtfully written, beautifully shot, and impressively acted, this is a nuanced and powerful testament to the memory of those people who haunt Argentina to this day.
¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival is presented by HOME, Manchester, with the support of the BFI Film Festival Fund, awarding funds from The National Lottery, AC/E,and the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs, Embassy of Spain in the UK.