Di Tella Prohibido Sparknotes
Further Questions: Prohibido
One might say that during Argentina’s Dirty War workers, farmers, and students were repressed, while intellectuals were forbidden (prohibidos). Consequently, Di Tella’s narrative strategy in Prohibido (1997) is to tell the history of that period as tale of repression and censorship whose aim was to annihilate the citizenry’s dignity.
When deciding how to narrate the film, Di Tella could have very well attempted to create an objective and detailed account of the military regime’s persecution of intellectuals. This, in and of itself, would have been enough to make the film noteworthy. However, he pushed further to make a more complex and layered film. Indeed, the documentary addresses censorship and repression, but …show more content…
It includes their anecdotal testimonies about staging Telarañas (Webs, 1977), a play that was censored even though its themes were “abstract” and lacking in direct reference to social reality. This example, among others, allows Di Tella to evoke a general atmosphere of suspicion, personal risk, and disappearance. Meanwhile, archival films show General Videla visiting the Buenos Aires Book Fair, where he is greeted by none other than Jorge Luis Borges. Videla also appears onscreen visiting a school where the children receive him as a new national …show more content…
As part of the multicolored patchwork he creates, Di Tella incorporates clips from films that both supported and critiqued the so-called “Process for National Reorganization.” Among the films he includes are Emilio Vieyra’s (1920–2010) Comandos azules (Blue Commanders, 1980), which glorifies the Argentine police; Adolfo Aristarain’s (1943-) Tiempo de revancha (Time for Revenge, 1981), an allegory of political violence; Fernando E. Solanas’s (1936-) Sur (The South, 1988), which portrays mock executions; Hugo Santiago’s (1939-) Las veredas de Saturno (Saturn’s Sidewalks, 1986), a film about exile; Héctor Olivera’s (1931-) La noche de los lápices (The Night of the Pencils, 1986), which treats the theme of torture; and Luis Puenzo’s (1946-) La historia oficial (The Official Story, 1985), about children whom the military kidnapped. These archival clips constitute a veritable anthology of how film, whenever possible, made reference to that time of intense
One might say that during Argentina’s Dirty War workers, farmers, and students were repressed, while intellectuals were forbidden (prohibidos). Consequently, Di Tella’s narrative strategy in Prohibido (1997) is to tell the history of that period as tale of repression and censorship whose aim was to annihilate the citizenry’s dignity.
When deciding how to narrate the film, Di Tella could have very well attempted to create an objective and detailed account of the military regime’s persecution of intellectuals. This, in and of itself, would have been enough to make the film noteworthy. However, he pushed further to make a more complex and layered film. Indeed, the documentary addresses censorship and repression, but …show more content…
It includes their anecdotal testimonies about staging Telarañas (Webs, 1977), a play that was censored even though its themes were “abstract” and lacking in direct reference to social reality. This example, among others, allows Di Tella to evoke a general atmosphere of suspicion, personal risk, and disappearance. Meanwhile, archival films show General Videla visiting the Buenos Aires Book Fair, where he is greeted by none other than Jorge Luis Borges. Videla also appears onscreen visiting a school where the children receive him as a new national …show more content…
As part of the multicolored patchwork he creates, Di Tella incorporates clips from films that both supported and critiqued the so-called “Process for National Reorganization.” Among the films he includes are Emilio Vieyra’s (1920–2010) Comandos azules (Blue Commanders, 1980), which glorifies the Argentine police; Adolfo Aristarain’s (1943-) Tiempo de revancha (Time for Revenge, 1981), an allegory of political violence; Fernando E. Solanas’s (1936-) Sur (The South, 1988), which portrays mock executions; Hugo Santiago’s (1939-) Las veredas de Saturno (Saturn’s Sidewalks, 1986), a film about exile; Héctor Olivera’s (1931-) La noche de los lápices (The Night of the Pencils, 1986), which treats the theme of torture; and Luis Puenzo’s (1946-) La historia oficial (The Official Story, 1985), about children whom the military kidnapped. These archival clips constitute a veritable anthology of how film, whenever possible, made reference to that time of intense