The protagonists of the story are prosecutor Julio Strasser (Argentine main actor Ricardo Darin) and his young assistant lawyer Luis Moreno Locampo (Peter Lanzani). Together they will serve as prosecutors in the case of the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Because of the constant threats, risks, and unbearable task, no one wants to get started.
But with the support of a group of young legal enthusiasts, Strasser and Locampo challenge a system that until recently was subject to a dictatorial regime, some of whose representatives were still in power. Together, the heroes will soon have to gather the most convincing evidence against the perpetrators of the mass repressions and punish the traumatized and bleeding criminals in front of the entire nation.
“Argentina 1985” is a classic example of court procedure that many critics have rushed to level with prominent representatives of the genre, even after its premiere in Venice, such as Stanley Kramer’s “Nuremberg Trials” and Milos Forman’s “The People.” v. Larry Flynt”.
And officially, these stories are truly blood brothers of each other. In some ways they even resemble the biblical story about David who decides to fight Goliath, in this case a faceless system that is in no hurry to cleanse itself of its bloody past.
Film director Santiago Miter coolly examines a terrifying chapter in his country’s history. Despite the great national wound lurking in the plot, Miter rejects sentimentality and prefers almost rigorous common sense to naked emotion. Behind this decision is the director’s clear realization that there is nothing worse than a video of a real trial. That’s why the artistic scenes of the film’s most tense moments are interspersed with a documentary chronicle of a real trial in which victims of mass kidnapping, rape and torture recount the horrors they experienced.
True, Mitra does not always manage to maintain this balance of reality and artistic reconstruction. The painting, which begins with the slow narration of the world of the heroes, gains momentum at the end of the first hour, but starts to slide instead of speeding up. Whether it’s behind-the-scenes work by a group of lawyers or scenes from their family life, individual episodes seem long and lacking in vitality. As a result, a complex issue hangs under its own weight and doesn’t have time to quickly respond to the new plot.
Still, the tape has a chance to continue Argentina’s victorious march around the world and receive the planet’s main film award after the football world championship. Moreover, the picture was nominated for the Golden Globe, as well as the Spanish Goya.