Directed by : Santiago Mitre

Never Again.

Ricardo Darin, Peter Lanzani and others in a still from 'Argentina, 1985'

Spoilers ahead..


Inspired by the true events of Argentina in 1984 when the military fascist dictatorship rule finally ended. Over the past many years there was kidnapping of innocents, people disappearing, torture for no reason, rapes and deaths. Its now been 7 months and no trial from the military court side has happened in regards to the injustice done by the people in command previously. Thereby, the civilian court gets the chance to hear the case and the prosecution lawyer would be Julio Cesar Strassera (Ricardo Darin) who later gets assistance from Luis Moreno Ocampo (Peter Lanzani).

Biographies already are a tough watch because the chronological order of narrating story more often than not isn't compelling watch. And when it becomes a political biography its worse because firstly I hate political people, and secondly, with all the pressure of the powerful people, the chances of a true depiction and not watching one side of story diminishes a lot. 

Since I know nothing about Argentina or this story, I viewed the movie like a courtroom drama. There's humour involved whenever Julio's family scenes are shown whether its about how he makes his own son spy over his daughter to know she isn't dating someone who could be a danger to him and his family. Or the frustrated expressions he makes while watching an interview of a political person on tv. Interestingly, Julio even takes help of his son for the final statement in the court. 

The scenes involving the tortured people narrating how and what happened to them, are the toughest to watch knowing this happened in real specially the pregnant lady being tortured is heart-breaking and also deeply disturbing even without the visuals. 

Julio-Luis pairing was fun, initially for the inability to get his name right every time. The only big arguement they have when Luis blames Julio for not doing anything during the dictatorship period gets very intense. 

The two major issues I felt was, firstly the whole trial period where they had to get evidence is done with too quickly through a montage, they easily could had showed more struggle before eventually getting 800+ witnesses and loads of evidence files. And the other problem was the courtroom drama felt less intense, mainly because the tussle between prosecution and defence was happening rarely.  Surely, there was a case of building lot more tension knowing this is not any case but a political one involving past commanders of the country. Also, I didn't understand why there was no defence statement at the end or do the courts in Argentina don't do it ? 

Ricardo Darin is excellent portraying a character who is all the time worried about his family but he also wants to give justice to all those people who were treated badly by the military dictatorship rule. He's also humourous, like how he orders secretary to do a thing and quickly changes tone to request when told he can't fire her from job. I like his final moving statement that ends with those words 'Never Again'. 

Peter Lanzani does well in a supporting role is very good. The moment when Luis is being followed from the lift I almost felt he may die and how that makes him feel in next courtroom scene where he kept fearing there's an actual bomb in there. 

Overall, Argentina, 1985 is a good watch, might work more for the local people or who know the history better, as a courtroom drama I felt it lacked in some departments, yet it tells the tale of people that suffered and you can't help but wonder how such dictatorship rule has ruined lives of people in any country where its applied directly or indirectly. 

My Rating : 6/10