Luis Puenzo died: The Official History, his secrets and the impact of a devastating film

and here it is The official storyalive and well. Thus we have seen it return to Argentine screens every time an anniversary of the Military Coup occurs. Visually and sonically renewed. But with its content intact and always current.

Luis Puenzoits director, who died this Tuesday, April 21, had an explanation: “It is in force due to its own merits and the lack of merits of the country. It is a film that talks about the Argentine political reality. And for me the Argentine political reality is the same. The cycles of history have times that are not ours. Is 2016 very different from the time of the military? No,” he said at the time. “We are in the same historical-economic cycle that began before the coup, and we will be in the same historical cycle, for sure, for a couple of decades. “We are living that cycle, and that is why it is in force.”

After having filmed a children’s feature film (Lights from my shoes) and a short (Five years of lifeone of the episodes of The surprises) in the first half of the ’70s, with the coup d’état of ’76 Puenzo decided to leave cinema and dedicate himself only to advertising. But the Malvinas war prompted him to return to filming.

“When the boys returned from the war and the atrocities that had been done to them began to be known, I said: we have to film it. I wanted to tell what had happened from the point of view of someone who had not been exiled, and I was captivated by the theme of the missing boys: I felt that it was a very precise synthesis. I began to write from the point of view of the grandmother who was searching for him. But the story did not grow. Until I saw that I had to write from the appropriating mother. And there the movie exploded.”

Luis Puenzo summoned his friend from adolescence Aída Bortnik, who had returned from exile, to write the script with him in 1983. For the lead role he chose Norma Aleandro, whom he had met during the filming of The surprises.

She had also returned after six years in Spain and did not want to know anything: “I was directing a play at the Liceo theater, and one day Puenzo comes to talk to me about a script. We are going to talk at the bar across the street, He tells me and I get very excited.. But I had just come from exile, the military government was still in place and I was terrified. It took him a long time to convince me: I cried every time he told it to me, it seemed wonderful to do it, but I rejected it several times out of fear.”

Until he convinced her: “I took it as a citizen’s duty.so that people would find out what they had not been able to or had not wanted to find out.”

Filming began, with the collaboration of some Grandmothers from Plaza de Mayo who were looking for the third recovered grandchild. January 1984. For budget reasons, filming took place at the Acassuso house where Puenzo lived with his wife, Nora, and their three youngest children.

“On the one hand – Aleandro remembers – it was something very nice, very familiar. On the other hand, when I went there or returned to my house, I was scared to death. One wondered if this was going to be released. And, if it premiered, what was going to happen to us after the premiere.”

The fear was well-founded: two nights, upon arriving home in Lanús after filming, unknown men threatened his mother. Analía Castro -the girl from the movie- to take her off the set. Analía was four years old when she rose to world fame with her role in The official story.

Puenzo says: “We decided to announce that the film had finished. We had to ask two or three journalist friends to publish it. We had a little party, the end of filming ritual. And we continue filming secretly”.

According to Aleandro at the time, the film “can continue fulfilling its original role, which is to raise awareness. So that the guilty continue to be tried and that Justice does not stop. And that grandchildren continue to be found.”

When it was restored ten years ago, Puenzo said: “The technicians came with astonished faces and told me “it’s good!” “Old films used to have prestige, now they age undeservedly.”

On March 24, 1986, The official story won the Oscar for best foreign film, the first for an Argentine production. The person in charge of announcing it was herself Norma Aleandro: “We were doing press there days ago, we went with plenty of time, we had been to the Golden Globes and we stayed. They came to talk to me about presenting the award for foreign film. That’s when I thought ‘they’re not giving it to us’.”

Of course, it was very strange that the person who is going to announce the award took it. “And we also had wonderful competition: Dad is on a business trip, Colonel Redl... On the day of the award he had not worn his glasses. When I opened the envelope, the handwriting was small and I had to push the card away. It started with Official Storyand I was used to The official story. I didn’t think it was in English. When I realized it was our movie, I said the famous ‘God bless you‘, which came from my soul, because it was a vindication of everything that had happened to us. The coin turned and the film began to give us wonders after so much sadness.”

The recognition in Cannes Film Festival Aleandro – winner along with Cher of the Best Actress award – and the fact that the film has triumphed as best film, according to the ecumenical jury, gave it renewed impetus in Argentina. It was undoubtedly the beginning of a series of recognitions that culminated with the Oscar.

The foreign press said: “The official story is a heartbreaking and painful drama that crystallizes the horror and obscenity of political activities that annihilate family solidarity in the name of ideology. The official story has a devastating visceral impact.”