Fatherland
(Tierra de los padres)

How can you film two hundred years of Argentine history? From an (aristocratic) necropolis where the supposed heroes of the homeland lie. Recoleta cemetery is the chosen setting – men and women of different ages, read some of some fundamental, ideologically significant texts about the official (and unofficial) history of Argentina, often beside or facing the graves of their authors. The result is unsettling: the texts could be those of today (and universal), even though some of them date back to the 19th century. The meticulous static shots and choices of frame capture the cemetery’s statues and use them as elements for a lucid mise-en-scène in which architecture and discourse summarise the antagonisms and struggles of a country marked by violence. RK