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Kamchatka (film)
Kamchatka (2002) is an Argentine and Spanish drama film directed by Marcelo Pineyro and written by Pineyro and Marcelo Figueras. The movie features Ricardo Darin, Cecilia Roth, Tomas Fonzi, Hector Alterio, among others. Kamchatka at the Internet Movie Database.
The motion picture is set in Argentina during the Dirty War of the 1970s and tells the story of a family hiding from the government in rural Argentina.
Kamchatka was Argentina's official submission for the 2002 Oscar Awards in the foreign language film category.
Plot
The film is seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy Harry (Matias del Pozo), who does not know Argentina's 1976 ''coup d'etatis impacting his life.
After witnessing the "disappearance" of dissident friends, a human rights lawyer (Ricardo Darin) and his research scientist wife (Cecilia Roth) flee the city and hide from the military police in a vacant summer house. With them are their two kids: Harry, who is fascinated with the escape artistry of Harry Houdini, and El Enano'', his little brother. The family adopts new identities and attempts to lead a normal life. Later, they are joined by a student going by the alias of Lucas (Tomas Fonzi).
Their new life is difficult, but a visit with their estranged grandparents (Fernanda Mistral and Hector Alterio) reveal they are still a close-knit family.
Subtly hinted, and used as a metaphor, is the mother's constant smoking and ''El Enano's'' renewed bed-wetting. Both serve to show how stressful and precarious their situation is.
Background
Basis of film
The film is based on the political event that took place in Argentina after Jorge Rafael Videla's reactionary military junta assumed power in 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 between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing "subversives" disappeared from society.
ScreenplayAccording to the Internet Movie Database the screenplay was written by Marcelo Figueras, based on an original story written by Figueras and Marcelo Pineyro. When the time for the nominations came, the Argentine Film Critics Association credited the authorship of the final script to both of them.
Title of filmThe title refers to the Russian northeastern state, which, in the movie, is used by the family father in the boardgame TEG as the ultimate stand-off and uses it as his last resource to win. The title thus alludes to the family situation of hiding away from imminent peril as a final act of defiance before their ultimate downfall.
Politics in Argentine filmsKamchatka is part of what can be considered a second group of films to be made in Argentina since the downfall of General Leopoldo Galtieri and his autocratic regime in 1982 (the last dictatorship in Argentina). Another film in the second group is Veronico Cruz (1988).
The first group, like The Official Story (1985), Night of the Pencils (1986), and Funny Dirty Little War (1983) dealt frankly with the repression, the tortures, and the disappearances during Argentina's Dirty War in the 1970s.
This second group of films uses metaphor and suggestive images, and hint at wider socio-political issues. New Internationalist. Issue 192, February 1989.
Cast
Ricardo Darin as Dad, David Vincent (alias)
Cecilia Roth as Mom Vincent (alias)
Matias Del Pozo as Harry (alias)
Milton De La Canal as Simon, El Enano (alias)
Hector Alterio as Grandfather
Fernanda Mistral as Grandmother
Tomas Fonzi as Lucas
Monica Scapparone as Bertuccio's Mother
Critical reception
In a review, critic Anji Milanovic called the film an "heartrending drama" and liked the look of the film. He wrote, "The cinematography is gorgeous, and the Argentine countryside looks like a fairytale, all the more distressing given the killing and torture that occurred. The terror they feel is shown in little vignettes of family life." Milanovic, Anji. La Plume Noire, film review, 2003.
Film critic A. Fernandez-Santos, critic for the Spanish daily El Pais, wrote "Kamchatka has many features to be considered a masterpiece, it's cinema at its best, gifted with a great strength of emotional impact. It is a tender, grievous and touching elegy. Underneath the intense silent walls of captivity, it hides the thud and rage of the immeasurable collective tragedy." Fernandez-Santos, A. El Pais, film review, November 29, 2002.
Mercedes Santos Moray, reporting from the Havana Film Festival, liked that director Pineyro delivered in giving the audience a suggestive image of the tragic, historical events, and wrote, "The painful memory is represented in an intimate way. Pineyro works both with the feelings and the reason. His film is a metaphor about the dimensions of freedom. The people still suffer but the danger has disappeared. There are only the phantoms of the past... A family in the film escape the repressions for a moment, but at last their lives are affected by the violent events."
Awards
Wins
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Sound, Carlos Abbate and Jose Luis Diaz; 2003.
Cartagena Film Festival: Golden India Catalina; Best Screenplay, Marcelo Figueras and Marcelo Pineyro; 2003.
Havana Film Festival: Best Screenplay, Marcelo Pineyro; Grand Coral - Third Prize, Marcelo Pineyro; 2003.
Vancouver International Film Festival: Most Popular Film Marcelo Pineyro; 2003.
Young Artist Awards: Young Artist Award; Best Young Ensemble in an International Film, Tomas Fonzi, Matias Del Pozo and Milton De La Canal; 2003.
Nominations
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Actor, Ricardo Darin; Best Art Direction, Jorge Ferrari; Best Cinematography, Alfredo F. Mayo; Best Original Screenplay, Marcelo Figueras and Marcelo Pineyro; 2003.
Cartagena Film Festival: Golden India Catalina; Best Film, Marcelo Pineyro; 2003.
Flanders International Film Festival: Grand Prix, Marcelo Pineyro; 2003.
External links
Kamchatka en cinenacional.com .
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Kamchatka (film)
