This is how “Argentina, 1985” runs, the film that opens on Thursday and can compete for an Oscar

The movie from Santiago Mitre begins in 1984 already in democracy, after the takeover Raul Alfonsin as President. From the outset – through some on-screen text – it places the viewer in the specific situation being experienced in relation to the junta’s trial, detailing how the military courts avoided dealing with the matter. When the deadline they have to give them expires – the texts say – the trial should fall into civilian hands, more specifically before the National Court of Appeals for Penal and Correctional Institutions of Buenos Aires, of which it is the prosecutor Julius Caesar Strassera.

but Argentina, 1985 tone changes quickly and what we find is the family life of streeta (Richard Darin), a married man (Alexandra Flechner impersonates his wife Marisa) and that he has two children, a teenage girl and a boy, a boy. His main problem at this time is investigating the man his daughter is dating, a slightly older man who he suspects may be “off duty”. Y July Caesar Strassera He has no better idea than sending his young son to follow his older sister in a detective scheme. It won’t be the only time I use it for this.

When I heard the news that the military had not ruled on the trial in question, streeta You already guess what will fall on your desk. And he appears to be trying to avoid it at all costs, apologizing for not visiting government officials who want to meet with him. It is not just a matter of not wanting to take on the problem, but the prosecutor suspects that the process will only be a front with no real consequences (the statements of the Minister of the Interior Antonio Troccoli in the TV presentation of the CONADEP report they imply that) and he doesn’t want to play that game.

But he won’t be able to avoid it and there he will find that he is much more alone than he thinks, like the sheriff of a classic western who must face the danger that is coming while everyone else is in hiding. There the man not only finds that most of his court colleagues prefer not to delve into the subject, but also that many of them are, as he puts it, “pretty cool” and that it’s better not to should betray you. At the same time, his family begins to receive telephone threats and, to his regret, they assign two security guards to protect him from possible attacks.

Accompanied by the playwright Carlos Somigliana (responsible for Claudio da Passano), who works in court and becomes his first ally – and “morally” supported by a retired lawyer who interprets Norman Briski-, a streeta He has no choice but to include the young lawyer in his team Luis Moreno Ocampo (Peter Lanzani) and a group of fledgling 20-year-olds who are responsible for compiling the vast amount of information they need to prove their allegations, as well as summoning witnesses scattered across the country, many of whom are unrelated to the have to do with the idea of ​​testifying at a time when their torturers are free to circulate.

Moreno Ocampo at the same time has his own problems, since he belongs to a family with a military tradition and his involvement as a prosecutor against the juntas confronts them all, but above all his mother, who not only does not want to know who he is taking part in this trial with, but defends what the military did in the “fight against subversion”. What will follow from there will be the trial itself, with its more or less known historical circumstances, some of its strongest testimonies, the parallel developing political manipulations, pressures and threats, until reaching the well-known and epic ending with the prosecutor’s plea.

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