The second film directed by Dolores Fonzi has reached cinemas and is making waves.
Following her first movie, Blondi, the actor and director this time presents a true story which took place in Tucumán Province between 2014 and 2016. In Belén, the filmmaker tells the story of a young woman who arrived at a public hospital bleeding and was accused of abortion, later ending up in jail. The title character's plight became the focus on a national movement demanding abortion reform in Argentina.
Fonzi is not alone in this powerful project, which has now been chosen as Argentina’s nomination for Best International Feature at the Oscars. She was accompanied in both the screenwriting and acting process by Laura Paredes, with several players from different provinces joining the project, including the film’s lead actor Camila Plaate, who plays Belén.
Among the other well-known actors who feature are Uruguayan actor César Troncoso, Luis Machín, Julieta Cardinali and María Marull.
Belén was selected to take part in film festivals in San Sebastián, Biarritz and Rome. It enjoys the backing of Amazon MGM Studios and K&S Films.
In a feature interview, the film’s director and stars discuss the project, bringing to life a true story that’s so recent and women’s rights in Argentina today under President Javier Milei’s government.
Your screenplay was based on two books, Libertad para Belén (“Freedom for Belén”) by lawyer Soledad Deza and Somos Belén (“We are all Belén”) by Ana Correa. Yet we can recognise phrases heard in Congress when the abortion law was discussed. Is that the case?
DOLORES FONZI: Absolutely. We made a potpourri with the oddest and most absurd data from the times of the abortion law and we put them there. A bit to give it context, to laugh at them because they were ridiculous, and also to deal out poetic justice.
Did it help you, getting to know the lawyer who took on the defence, wrote the book and whom you play in the movie?
D.F: So much. She’s a loving, generous person. She was super open and gave herself up completely. We asked her a lot of things we needed for the script. I was in touch with her for a long time and something happened there. If you write the material and are even close to the person you’re going to play, there’s a kind of state that takes over you which has nothing to do with the rational. A kind of game of energies happens and that made things so much easier. She was very happy to participate, was proactive with the film and trusted me blindly, without seeing the finished product. Her gestures to us were totally loving.
What’s the difference between authoring your own fiction – such as in your first film Blondi – and taking on a story based on true events?
D.F: I find it very appealing to try to portray something that did exist, did happen and give it my own voice. Because to me, if the tale doesn’t have that humanity, there’s something which stays kind of distant from reality. I like to play or laugh at myself. In Blondi, and of course here in Belén, there’s also a mother and her everyday dynamic – her children, school – and a true event which changes her life. Everything changes because she decides to be empathetic. She understands there is an injustice to solve, and she puts herself in the service of that story. How she plays these two games – being a conventional person, having food in the fridge, but at the same time she has to go to court and defend a girl who is the victim of an injustice tooth and nail.
Did you shoot in Tucumán?
D.F: We did shoot exteriors in that province, and interiors in Buenos Aires. There’s an assembly, but still, Soledad’s house in the film looks a lot like her house in Tucumán. The streets and marches were in San Miguel, but the jail sequences were done here.
Do you think dissemination [of the situation] and the marches were important [at the time]?
D.F: Clearly the lawyer had to find any possible tools to have a voice. I joined the story in 2016, during an awards ceremony, I spoke of Belén’s case. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one, but I was the first and because of that the international press took interest in the story. For a province like Tucumán to have the subject spoken of abroad was a big deal. It became a federal case and all the demonstrations started, which then added to the movement and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law was passed in 2020.
Your movie has been shortlisted by the Argentine Academy of Arts and Film Science for the Oscars and Goya Awards, together with La mujer de la fila (“The woman in the queue”), Algo nuevo, algo viejo, algo prestado (“Something new, something old, something borrowed”) and Homo Argentum…
D.F: We’ll rely on the academics who have seen the films to see which one they like the most. I couldn’t see any of them because I’m shooting a series in Chile [Editor’s Note: Netflix’s Mis muertos tristes by Pablo Larrain].
Turning to Camila, did you get to know the real Belén, whom you had to play?
CAMILA PLAATE: I met her after filming, which also helped. I think I would have been nervous if I had met her before. I feel the film has a lot of respect for her identity, her process and everything it will mean for her to know that her story is being projected all over the world.
We met up in a very intimate setting, with her sister and my own [Ruth]. All four of us are from Tucumán, we could talk more about society and everyday life in the province, which is pretty heavy in that sense. It’s a very sexist place, although now there a lot more organisations and youths are opening production companies and we artists support each other a lot.
Do you think society in Tucumán has changed since 2016?
C.P: To me, it has changed so much, because I feel Argentina has also changed and the world is very different. We’re going through all the worldwide atrocities and it’s becoming a very hostile place. Crises both reunite us and unite us. Tucumán is a very, very small place, but a lot of things go on there. There are a number of gender violence cases and teenage mothers. There’s the indigenous culture, with their own wisdom, but also violence. It’s a small territory, but silence, shame and fear take over.
What was it like to work with actors from Tucumán?
D.F: There was a huge casting session in the hands of Mariana Mitre and Katia Shekman. Most of the actors are from Tucumán, but also from Salta, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba, from all over the place. I’m thankful for that because it provides the movie with humanity. Tucumán is a province of great cultural resistance. Mercedes Sosa, Manuela Pedraza and Lola Mora were from there – a counter-offensive in the face of such a conservative ultra-right.
At this time, some in Argentina propose having a second look at abortion reform and the law. What do you think?
D.F: I hope they’re sensible and don’t meddle there, it wouldn’t be good for them. You’d want to waste political time to seek to reverse that law with all the problems in the country. First, they should solve what needs solving and then, if they want to remove a right, they’ll see who they’re dealing with. If you’re sensible enough and remember six million people mobilised, I think you need to tread carefully.
Do you think this female unity, which has occurred not only in Argentina, but worldwide, is important?
D.F: Sure, because it’s a proven fact. I think the film does it too, it confirms that if it was possible at one time, it’s possible today. That which was achieved can be achieved again – union, the collective work of groups. When there’s a tide of green scarves such as what happened, it was possible. That doesn’t go away because someone comes to lay into women or feminisms, or anyone. Though they try to divide with a 'criticise and conquer' logic, it won’t happen, because if there’s a basic need to be filled, we’ll unite again and this is what happens with the film.
Belén reconfirms that, it happened, we were united, the tools were there, so did groups and organisation. If that’s necessary again, we’ll do it again.
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