This movie shows the fact that upper middle class people actually have no clue what the rest of the world is going through. Since Alicia and her friends are older and upper middle class, they are not worried with other issues.
Even though this film doesn’t take place way before it was produced, like most of the historical films we’ve watched, it still has the theme of intrahistoria that we’ve discussed.
To show the side of someone who ‘won’ in the war is to show what life was like for the upper class, a story that is the focus of historical narratives. Alicia’s story is not about the losses of the Dirty War, but about how ignorance in society is complicit with injustice, and what can be done to improve the world after the main battle has been fought.
As I continued to think about the film, though, I felt that it portrayed a more nuanced commentary on both the complicity of the upper-middle class in the horrors of the military regime and on women’s agency in Argentinian society than I had first recognized.
Knowledge and sight go hand in hand in the film. Often, when a character is withholding information from Alicia, the sight line between the two figures is obstructed such taht Alicia can’t see the full picture, despite her strongest attempts. One such example comes when Alicia is sitting in the confessional booth, demanding that the priest answer her inquiries regarding the daughter’s family. Initially, the viewer is given a shot from Alicia’s side of the booth, and neither the viewer nor she gets a full vision of the priest; as she continues to question him, however, we switch to the priest’s side of the booth, and can see Alicia’s eyes through the opening in the wall as she stares him down. Clearly, he becomes distressed; quite literally, she is seeing through his lies, seeing through the wall that he has constructed to distance himself from the reality of the situation. …. La historia oficial deftly shows the relation of vision to truth.
This film was different because the progression of the character was that of an adult and not a child. We are used to seeing children come to realizations, conclusions, and epiphanies that change their perceptions of the world, yet La Historia oficial uses a grown woman unlearning and questioning what she’s known to become aware of her surroundings. The use of an adult reinforces the idea that we too (adults) can be like children who are naive, ignorant, and oblivious to our surroundings. It reinforces the theme that we too can be conducive of [or complicit with] injustice if we do not challenge evil, even if it could go against our favor, like in the case of Alicia.
Alicia comments that history is not a debate, a comment that shows her ignorance and unawareness (as a history major, what a totally appalling comment too).
This is the first time I found myself rooting against the protagonist just because she exuded ignorance. Along a similar train of thought, the film’s elements of sound, lighting, and scene design all emphasized how some people were literally in the “dark” about Argentina’s problems.
A more mainstream film would have focused on ‘desaparecidos’ themselves, yet instead this film focused on the rest of us. The complascent majority that just watches from the sidelines as their husbands or children hurt others. This film also focused on the human side of political corruption.
For me, there seemed to be similarities between Machuca’s Gonzalo and La historia oficial’s Alicia. While I understand they are in different situations, both characters seemed to be unaware of the injustices in their country. By the end of the movie, through different interactions, their eyes have opened; Gonzalo and Alicia realize that they have been living in an undisturbed bubble.
There is a slight pattern to scenes where Gaby or another child is present on camera, the lighting is bright and hopeful, whereas when a child is not present in a scene, that lighting tends to be dimmer or darker, signifying the darker and abysmal times of the present. A conjecture can be made that the director’s use of brighter lighting in scenes suggests that children are a bright hope for the future of Argentina, and the rest of the world as a whole.
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