Santiago Mitre's award-winning film Argentina, 1985, detailing the trial that put the commanders of the country's brutal 1976-1985 military dictatorship in the dock, scooped the Goya award for best Ibero-American film as a glitzy ceremony in Sevilla on Saturday.
The movie, the highest-grossing film of the year in national cinemas and available to stream on Amazon Prime, will represent Argentina at the Oscars in Hollywood next month, competing for Best International Film,
On Saturday, it walked away with a Goya after seeing off competition from Chile's 1976, Colombia's La Jauría, Mexico's Noche de Fuego and Bolivia's Utama to win the Spanish film award.
The feature portrays the work of prosecutor Julio Strassera (Ricardo Darín), and his assistant Luis Moreno Ocampo (Peter Lanzani), as they gather evidence of the dictatorship’s crimes under a climate of threats.
A report with testimonies of the victims of the dictatorship served as the evidentiary basis for the trial in which five of the nine members of the three juntas of commanders of the regime were convicted of crimes against humanity.
The trial is considered a triumphant moment in Argentina’s recent history and has been a hit with local and international audiences. It has picked up a host of awards including the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
"It was one of the most important trials in the history of Argentina and an example for the rest of the world, a fact of the recent past that has resonance with the present and that is basically looking forward to the new generations," Darín explained last September at the Venice Film Festival.
With this award, Argentina secures its 19th Goya for Best Ibero-American Film, reinforcing its dominance in the category, where it is followed at a considerable distance by Chile with five "cabezones" –– as these awards are popularly known –– and Cuba with four, as the top winners since these awards began in 1987.
––TIMES/AFP
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