Los Rubios
Encyclopedia
The Blonds (2003
) is an Argentine
and American
documentary
/drama film
, directed by Albertina Carri, and written by Carri and Alan Pauls.
The award winning film documents the search of director Albertina Carri as she investigates what happened to her family during Argentina's "Dirty War
."
The themes: Why did they disappear? Why were they murdered? Film critics have called the work an autobiographical semi-documentary work.
The drama/documentary was filmed in black-and-white
and in color.
, who years later has to contend with the pain barely remembered.
In this case the child is director Albertina Carri.
She returns with her film crew to the house she lived in the 1970s and interviews the neighbors about her parents and what happened.
The movie's title comes from an elderly woman's insistent (and, as it turns out, wrong) recollection that Carri's family members all had blond hair.
Carri tries to determine the following in the doc: Who were the Carri's? How did they disappear? Were they blond or brunette? Were they heroes or merely a fiction of those who remember them?
In addition to appearing on camera herself, Ms. Carri is played by the actress (Analía Couceyro).
's reactionary military junta assumed power on March 24, 1976. During the junta's rule: the parliament was suspended, unions, political parties and provincial governments were banned, and in what became known as the Dirty War
between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing "subversives" disappeared from society.
, believes the odd style of the documentary made its impact less forceful. He wrote, "The film's open-ended, recursive structure is central to Ms. Carri's intellectual agenda, which is to emphasize the deceptive, indeterminate nature of the truth...Too much of the film is in a mood of chin-scratching detachment, and this creates a vacuum in which its powerful, confrontational moments lose their force, the trauma of the past pushed nearly out of reach."
Critic Kevin Jack Hagopian thought the film's message is important, and wrote, "Los rubios is absurd, tragic, and sometimes, hilarious. It seeks not to eulogize the disappeared in solemn, self-important terms, but to make them as alive and real in the cultural sphere as they are in the political arena, a Borgesian
lesson in the ultimate fiction: that of ultimate certainty."
Nominations
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
) is an Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
/drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, directed by Albertina Carri, and written by Carri and Alan Pauls.
The award winning film documents the search of director Albertina Carri as she investigates what happened to her family during Argentina's "Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
."
The themes: Why did they disappear? Why were they murdered? Film critics have called the work an autobiographical semi-documentary work.
The drama/documentary was filmed in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and in color.
Synopsis
The film deals with a child, whose parents were among the tens of thousands of Argentines who were murdered during the military junta's Dirty WarDirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
, who years later has to contend with the pain barely remembered.
In this case the child is director Albertina Carri.
She returns with her film crew to the house she lived in the 1970s and interviews the neighbors about her parents and what happened.
The movie's title comes from an elderly woman's insistent (and, as it turns out, wrong) recollection that Carri's family members all had blond hair.
Carri tries to determine the following in the doc: Who were the Carri's? How did they disappear? Were they blond or brunette? Were they heroes or merely a fiction of those who remember them?
In addition to appearing on camera herself, Ms. Carri is played by the actress (Analía Couceyro).
Basis of film
The film is based on the real political events that took place in Argentina after Jorge Rafael VidelaJorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo is a former senior commander in the Argentine Army who was the de facto President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón...
's reactionary military junta assumed power on March 24, 1976. During the junta's rule: the parliament was suspended, unions, political parties and provincial governments were banned, and in what became known as the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing "subversives" disappeared from society.
Style
The documentary/drama has, what some critics have called, an odd style. For example, director Carri appears on film as herself in some scenes, but also uses an actor to portray her in other scenes. A.O. Scott writes that the film "is not so much a documentary as a fictional film about the making of a documentary, or perhaps a documentary about the making of a fictional film about the making of a documentary."Cast
- Analía Couceyro as Albertina Carri
- Albertina Carri as Herself
- Santiago Giralt as Himself
- Jesica Suarez as Herself
- Marcelo Zanelli as Himself
Critical reception
Critic A.O. Scott, writing for The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, believes the odd style of the documentary made its impact less forceful. He wrote, "The film's open-ended, recursive structure is central to Ms. Carri's intellectual agenda, which is to emphasize the deceptive, indeterminate nature of the truth...Too much of the film is in a mood of chin-scratching detachment, and this creates a vacuum in which its powerful, confrontational moments lose their force, the trauma of the past pushed nearly out of reach."
Critic Kevin Jack Hagopian thought the film's message is important, and wrote, "Los rubios is absurd, tragic, and sometimes, hilarious. It seeks not to eulogize the disappeared in solemn, self-important terms, but to make them as alive and real in the cultural sphere as they are in the political arena, a Borgesian
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
lesson in the ultimate fiction: that of ultimate certainty."
Awards
Wins- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent CinemaBuenos Aires International Festival of Independent CinemaThe Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The festival is managed by the Ministerio de Cultura del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, it is not...
: Audience Award, Albertina Carri; New Cinema Award, Albertina Carri; Special Mention, Albertina Carri; 2003. - Clarin Entertainment Awards: Clarin Award; Best Documentary, Albertina Carri; 2003.
Nominations
- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Best Film, Albertina Carri; 2003.
- Gijón International Film FestivalGijón International Film FestivalGijón International Film Festival was created in 1963. It was born as an initiative of the local authority and it was sponsored mainly by Gijón City Council and the then Caja de Ahorros de Asturias ; both institutions are still the main organisers of the festival, along with funding from the...
: Grand Prix Asturias; Best Feature, Albertina Carri; 2003.
External links
- Los rubios at the cinenacional.comCinenacional.comCinenacional.com is a web portal and web-based database about Argentine cinema.The site provides a vast array of information, including: films, television programs, directors, actors, cinematographers, film editors, production designers, and other production professions in Argentina...