Argentina, 1985 (2022) on Netflix
In 1985, Julio César Strassera must build Argentina's case against the military junta. Senior lawyers refuse to join him, and his deputy, Luis Moreno Ocampo, comes from a military family.
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- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb7.6/1037,006 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
Argentina has been a democracy for under two years when Julio César Strassera is picked to bring the state's case against the former military junta, since the military courts will not press charges. The junta has hired senior, experienced lawyers, while Strassera cannot find colleagues willing to join his team. His assigned deputy, Luis Moreno Ocampo, a professor, offers help, but Strassera turns him away over his military family background. Strassera receives death threats and is given a security detail. He accepts Moreno Ocampo, and together they recruit young law graduates and inexperienced lawyers, some holding government jobs that give the team access to case materials. The crimes reach across the country, so the team seeks out victims and records their testimonies. Moreno Ocampo's family turns on him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Argentina, 1985 (2022)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Long-time Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso joined Argentina, 1985 after watching a first version of the film, which she called "a pending subject", and donated her salary to the production.
- Sony stopped distributing the film and local company Digicine took over. Because its theatrical exclusivity window was only three weeks, chains Cinemark-Hoyts, Cinépolis and Showcase Cinemas refused to screen it; Llinás said that refusal gave the film "a certain mythical stature", with long lines at the venues that did show it.
- To recreate the trial scenes, the filmmakers used the same type of U-matic cameras that had originally broadcast the real 1985 trial, so archival footage of the actual trial could be inserted seamlessly.
- Mariano Llinás and Santiago Mitre first conceived the film as an episodic hyperlink film with changing points of view, time jumps and fantastical elements; producer Axel Kuschevatzky pushed for a classical film focused only on the trial, which Llinás found liberating because it opened the door to comedic segments.
- Ricardo Darín suggested himself to play prosecutor Julio César Strassera when Mitre first pitched the idea, then took the part after reading the first draft even though he generally disliked playing characters based on real people, and became a producer as well.
- Composer Pedro Osuna wrote the film's main musical themes in four days in March 2022, during post-production; Argentina, 1985 was his first time composing a film score.
- Researchers interviewed surviving participants in the Trial of the Juntas — Luis Moreno Ocampo, León Arslanián, Judith König, Carlos "Maco" Somigliana and Enrique "Coti" Nosiglia, interior minister under Raúl Alfonsín — and Mitre sat in to mine lines of dialogue, such as Moreno Ocampo's remark that his mother attended mass with Jorge Rafael Videla.
- After a history teacher proposed it, the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts held special screenings of Argentina, 1985 at its Cine Gaumont theater as part of an ethics, civics and democracy education program, with cast and staff speaking to students; about 500 students attended the first screening.
