''The Blonds'' ( es, Los rubios) is a 2003
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
and
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
documentary/
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
, directed by
Albertina Carri
Albertina Carri (born 1973, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine film producer, screenwriter and director, as well as an audiovisual artist.
Biography
Albertina Carri was born in Buenos Aires in 1973, where she currently lives and works. She is the ...
, and written by Carri and Alan Pauls.
The award winning film documents the search of director Albertina Carri as she investigates what happened to her family during Argentina's "
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...
."
The themes: Why did they disappear? Why were they murdered? Film critics have called the work an autobiographical semi-documentary work.
The drama/documentary was filmed in
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
and in color.
Synopsis
The film deals with a child, whose parents were among the tens of thousands of Argentines who were murdered during the military junta's
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...
, who years later has to contend with the pain barely remembered.
In this case the child is director Albertina Carri.
She returns with her film crew to the house she lived in the 1970s and interviews the neighbors about her parents and what happened.
The movie's title comes from an elderly woman's insistent (and, as it turns out, wrong) recollection that Carri's family members all had blond hair.
Carri tries to determine the following in the doc: Who were the Carris? How did they disappear? Were they blond or brunette? Were they heroes or merely a fiction of those who remember them?
In addition to appearing on camera herself, Ms. Carri is played by actress Analía Couceyro.
Background
Basis of film
The film is based on the real political events that took place in Argentina after
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla (; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and dictator, Commander in Chief of the Army, member of the Military Junta, and ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981. H ...
's reactionary military ''junta'' assumed power on March 24, 1976. During the ''junta's'' rule: the parliament was suspended, unions, political parties and provincial governments were banned, and in what became known as the
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...
between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing "subversives" disappeared from society.
Style
The documentary/drama has, what some critics have called, an odd style. For example, director Carri appears on film as herself in some scenes, but also uses an actor to portray her in other scenes.
A.O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis.
Early life
Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...
writes that the film "is not so much a documentary as a fictional film about the making of a documentary, or perhaps a documentary about the making of a fictional film about the making of a documentary."
Cast
*
Analía Couceyro as Albertina Carri
* Albertina Carri as Herself
* Santiago Giralt as Himself
* Jesica Suarez as Herself
* Marcelo Zanelli as Himself
Critical reception
Critic
A.O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis.
Early life
Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...
, writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', believes the odd style of the documentary made its impact less forceful. He wrote, "The film's open-ended, recursive structure is central to Ms. Carri's intellectual agenda, which is to emphasize the deceptive, indeterminate nature of the truth...Too much of the film is in a mood of chin-scratching detachment, and this creates a vacuum in which its powerful, confrontational moments lose their force, the trauma of the past pushed nearly out of reach."
Critic Kevin Jack Hagopian thought the film's message is important, and wrote, "''Los rubios'' is absurd, tragic, and sometimes, hilarious. It seeks not to eulogize the disappeared in solemn, self-important terms, but to make them as alive and real in the cultural sphere as they are in the political arena, a
Borgesian
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
lesson in the ultimate fiction: that of ultimate certainty."
Hagopian, Kevin Jack
''New York State Writers Institute,'' State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
.
Awards
Wins
* Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI, es, Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of ...
: Audience Award, Albertina Carri; New Cinema Award, Albertina Carri; Special Mention, Albertina Carri; 2003.
* Clarin Entertainment Awards Clarin or Clarín may refer to:
Geography
*Clarin, Bohol, a municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines
*Clarin, Misamis Occidental, a municipality in the province of Misamis Occidental, Philippines
* River Clarin, a river in Ireland
Media ...
: Clarin Award; Best Documentary, Albertina Carri; 2003.
Nominations
* Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema: Best Film, Albertina Carri; 2003.
* Gijón International Film Festival
The Gijón International Film Festival ( ast, Festival Internacional de Cine de Xixón or ''FICXixón'') is an annual film festival held in Gijón, a city in northwest Spain.
History
The festival's origins date back to 1963. In the beginning i ...
: ''Grand Prix Asturias''; Best Feature, Albertina Carri; 2003.
References
External links
* Official web site
*
''Los rubios''
at the cinenacional.com
Cinenacional.com is a web portal and World Wide Web, web-based database about Cinema of Argentina, Argentine cinema. It is the most comprehensive site for information about the Argentine film industry, with a vast array of information on films, tel ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blonds, The
2003 films
2003 drama films
American black-and-white films
Argentine black-and-white films
American docudrama films
Political drama films
Dirty War films
Films about Latin American military dictatorships
Films shot in Argentina
Argentine independent films
2000s Spanish-language films
American independent films
2000s American films