Director Santiago Miter’s film tells the story of the prosecutors who brought to justice the leaders of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship of 1976-1983. It is in competition for the best international film on Sunday March 12, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Luis Moreno Ocampo was 32 years old and inexperienced when he became one of the prosecutors in the first trial against the Argentine dictatorship; a historical moment transcribed in the film Argentina 1985, in the running for the Oscars on Sunday. The young magistrate, who later became a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, was already aware at the time that he was pleading before the whole country, and not just before the court, he said in an interview in early March. to AFP in Malibu, California. “I won the battle for understanding in 1985”he believes.
Argentina 1985, which competes in the category of the best international film at the Oscars 2023, recalls according to him the importance of not leaving crimes against humanity unpunished. The work recounts the determination of Luis Moreno Ocampo and his superior, Julio Strassera, to lead the accusation against nine officials of the military dictatorship in power between 1976 and 1983, just two years after its fall. The trial resulted in the life sentences of ex-dictators Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera, figures of a regime responsible for around 30,000 missing persons.
If he won the legal battle and that for the opinion at the hearing, the ex-magistrate estimates that the director Santiago Miter and the star of the film, Ricardo Darin – who interprets the “doctor” Strassera -, “are winning the memory battle in 2023”. “And it’s unique”, rejoices Luis Moreno Ocampo, father of four children. “My 23 year old son didn’t know what had happened. Today he is learning.” Deputy prosecutor during the trial, Luis Moreno Ocampo is played on screen by Peter Lanzani.
“Criminals or enemies?”
The junta tortured and killed thousands of Argentines in its “clandestine detention centres”. She also threw people alive overboard from planes, and hundreds of babies born in captivity were given to other families, including army officers. Beyond its historical dimension, the film has an international scope, according to Luis Moreno Ocampo. It raises the question of the treatment of violent people in a divided society. “Do we treat them as enemies who can be killed or as criminals who must be investigated?”questions the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (2003-2012), now 70 years old. “We cannot treat citizens as enemies”, as did the army in Argentina, he insists.
Beyond the immense emotion caused by the film in Argentina, it was well received in Spain and Brazil, countries whose own dictatorship has never been judged. “They did not investigate the past (…) it has an impact“Said Luis Moreno Ocampo, pointing to the situation in Brazil, where an insurrection led by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro tried to overthrow President Lula in January.
In a society that has never healed its wounds, treating the adversary as an enemy is acceptable, he summarizes. Gold “If the elites support a coup, you have a problem.” “This is something that Brazil, and even the United States, have not understood,” adds this academic, who has taught at several American universities and now lives in Malibu. “The invasion of the Capitol, it was not only the people who mobilized”, he adds. “To me, it’s impressive how members of Congress still support January 6, 2020 today.”
“Youth Power”
“This film is about the risk of losing democracy. But it is also about the power of youth”, Luis Moreno Ocampo chided. Argentina 1985 indeed returns to the way in which the prosecutor Julio Strassera was forced to form a team of novices around his young deputy. The magistrates in office were afraid of possible reprisals and so he had to recruit inexperienced jurists to build the accusation against the fallen junta.
“Young people are the ones who change the world and we must continue to fight for justice. Justice is endless work”, emphasizes Luis Moreno Ocampo, who had to face his own mother, a supporter of the army, for this trial. She “went to mass with the dictator Jorge Videla”he says.
But in the face of overwhelming testimonies, like the one detailed in the film of a woman kidnapped and forced to give birth handcuffed in the back seat of a car, the matriarch ended up changing her mind. “The next day she called me”, remembers Luis Moreno Ocampo. “She said to me: ‘I still love General Videla, but you’re right, he has to go to prison'”.
“Argentina 1985” was released on October 21, 2022 on Amazon Prime Video / 2h 20min
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