Argentina, 1985 is a 2022 historical legal drama film produced and directed by Santiago Mitre. Written by Mitre and Mariano Llinás, it stars Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, and Norman Briski. The film follows the 1985 trial of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina, during which torture, extrajudicial murder, and forced disappearances were a systematic occurrence. It focuses on the perspective of the prosecution team, led by Julio César Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, including their investigation before the trial.
Work on the screenplay began around five years before the film's release. After reading the first draft of the script, Darín took the main role and became a producer on the film. Production company Amazon Studios joined the project once the script was finished and the casting determined. Filming began in June 2021 and wrapped in September, taking place primarily in Buenos Aires. The film was shot where the depicted events took place, such as the original courtroom at Tribunales.
Co-produced by Argentina, the United Kingdom and the United States, Argentina, 1985 premiered in the main competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2022, where it won the FIPRESCI Award. Theatrically released in Argentina on 29 September and in the UK and US on 21 October, it was a commercial success, debuting at number one at the Argentine box office and becoming the most-watched Argentine film of 2022. It received critical acclaim, and won, among others, the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film, and the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award. It was also named one of the top five international films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film.
Plot
In 1985, Argentina has had a democratic government for less than two years after its last military junta ended. Public prosecutor Julio César Strassera is chosen to make the government's case against the military junta for alleged crimes against humanity after the military courts declined to press charges. The junta have retained the services of senior, experienced lawyers, while Strassera struggles to find lawyers to form his prosecution team. Strassera meets Luis Moreno Ocampo, his assigned deputy prosecutor, but initially rejects his offer for help due to Ocampo's military family background. Strassera receives several death threats and is assigned a security detail.
Finding no other lawyers, Strassera accepts Moreno Ocampo's help. Moreno Ocampo, a professor, suggests that they look for young law graduates and inexperienced lawyers, as senior lawyers are unwilling to risk their reputations or safety to sign on to a trial that is so divisive among the public.
Strassera and Moreno Ocampo interview and assemble a team, many of whom work in government offices and can use their access to materials to help the case. Because the atrocities were committed across the country, Strassera and his team seek victims and record their testimonies. Meanwhile, he and his team face risks to their safety. Moreno Ocampo's family turn on him for going against their military history.
On the first day of the trial, the court receives a bomb threat, but Strassera convinces the judges that the trial must proceed. The trial is recorded by cameras and parts of it are broadcast around the world. Many victims of the junta testify about torture they endured or witnessed. President Raúl Alfonsín invites Strassera to meet with him and informs him that he is keeping a close watch on the court events and was deeply moved by the testimony of the witnesses. Despite this, the Attorney General angers Strassera by intimating that he should be lenient with the Air Force.
For his closing argument, Strassera realizes that he will have the chance to make his case not just to the judges in the courtroom, but to the people of Argentina and those around the world. With the help of his family, he composes an eloquent closing statement, ending: "Your Honors: never again!". The judges move into deliberations, and Strassera's team await the outcome.
A dying friend asks Strassera for details of the final sentences. Strassera lies and tells him that all the generals received life sentences. Shortly after, Strassera learns that the court is sentencing General Jorge Videla and Admiral Emilio Massera to life imprisonment, General Roberto Viola to seventeen years, Admiral Armando Lambruschini to eight years, and General Orlando Agosti to four and a half years. Dissatisfied with most of the outcomes, Strassera begins typewriting an appeal.
Cast
Ricardo Darín as Julio César Strassera: the chief prosecutor of the Trial of the Juntas. Peter Lanzani as Luis Moreno Ocampo: Strassera's deputy prosecutor, whose family sympathizes with the military. Alejandra Flechner as Silvia: Strassera's wife. The character is based on Marisa Tobar. Gina Mastronicola as Verónica Strassera: Strassera's daughter. The character is based on Carolina Strassera. Santiago Armas as Javier Strassera: Strassera's son. The character is based on Julián Strassera. Laura Paredes as Adriana Calvo: a woman who gave birth while kidnapped by the military government during the dictatorship and a key witness for the trial. Carlos Portaluppi as León Arslanián: the president of the court Susana Pampín as Magda: Moreno Ocampo's mother, who sides with the military Claudio Da Passano as Carlos "Somi" Somigliana: a playwright that helps Strassera write his final speech Héctor Díaz as Basile: one of the military junta's defense attorneys Gabriel Fernández as Bruzzo: a political operator for Raúl Alfonsín's government. The character is fictional, with his actions in the film being taken from different real-life political operative. Norman Briski as "Ruso": Strassera's mentor. The character was created for the film. Alejo García Pintos and Walter Jakob as two of the trial's judges
Several young actors appear as part of Strassera's team, dubbed the "fiscalitos" (): Almudena González as Judith König, in charge of answering the phone; Félix Santamaría as Carlos "Maco" Somigliana, son of Carlos Somigliana; Manuel Caponi as Lucas Palacios; Santiago Rovito as Eduardo Manera; Brian Sichel as Federico Corrales; and Antonia Bengoechea as María Eugenia. Bengoechea is Darín's niece.
Leyla Bechara appears as Isabel; the film was her first acting experience. Paula Ransenberg plays Susana, Strassera's secretary. Guillermo Jacubowicz plays Hormiga, Javier's bodyguard. Additionally, Marcelo Pozzi appears as Jorge Rafael Videla, Jorge Gregorio as Orlando Ramón Agosti, Joselo Bella as Emilio Eduardo Massera, Sergio Sánchez as Jorge Isaac Anaya, Marcelo López as Basilio Lami Dozo, Carlos Ihler as Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, Héctor Balcone as Roberto Eduardo Viola, and Jorge Varas as Armando Lambruschini—the members of the military junta. Pepe Arias portrays journalist Bernardo Neustadt, who interviews Moreno Ocampo. Fernando Contigiani plays Pablo Díaz, a survivor of the Night of the Pencils and a witness for the trial.
Production Development
Martín Rodríguez, journalist, writer, political analyst and a friend of director Santiago Mitre, originally gave him the suggestion to make a film about the Trial of the Juntas in 2016. Rodríguez joined the project as a historical researcher and adviser, and later brought screenwriter, producer and journalist Federico Scigliano on as a collaborator, working throughout 2017. They constructed a "'state of the art' on debates and discussions around the trial and the time", offering "possible ideas, entry points, and threads" on the subject which had a certain level of topicality. Their work took place in the early stages of development, when the story had not yet taken shape. They centered their work on the trial itself as a founding event of Argentine democracy. Their methodology consisted of interviewing many of the people who had participated in the trial and were still alive, such as Luis Moreno Ocampo, León Arslanián, Judith König, Carlos "Maco" Somigliana, and Enrique "Coti" Nosiglia, who served as Minister of the Interior for president Raúl Alfonsín in 1987. Mitre attended some of those interviews, during which he searched for possible lines of dialogue and narratives, such as when Moreno Ocampo told them that his mother "attended mass with [Jorge Rafael] Videla". Mitre spoke to the judges of the trial, as well as witnesses and members of the prosecutorial team, to understand their emotions at the time. He also met with Strassera's son Julián.
Work on the screenplay began around five years before the film's release, with Mitre starting the first draft during the editing stage of his previous film, The Summit (2017). Originally, writer Mariano Llinás and Mitre conceived the film to be a more episodic hyperlink film, with "several intertwined stories", changing points of view, time jumps, mixing genres and including fantastical elements, but producer Axel Kuschevatzky told them the film should be more classical in nature and focus solely on the trial, which Llinás considered liberating because it opened the door to comedic segments. He nonetheless had difficulty writing the script, as it was based on real events, many of its characters were still alive, and the public had differing opinions on the subject.
Mitre mentioned political thrillers All the President's Men (1976) and The Post (2017) as influences for "the tension of contemporary cinema" and "a very energetic concept of group work", as well as the Chilean film No (2012), which is also about a democratic transition in Latin America. Kuschevatzky also brought up Steven Spielberg, Otto Preminger, and Costa-Gavras as filmmakers they considered influential for Argentina, 1985. John Ford was cited as a reference for the film for his tradition of classical cinema and comedic tone.
Pre-production
Actor Ricardo Darín, who had become friends with Mitre after starring in The Summit, suggested playing Strassera when Mitre first presented him the idea to adapt the events of the Trial of the Juntas. After reading the first draft of the script, Darín took the role, despite generally not being interested in playing characters based on real people, and became a producer on the film as well. To play Moreno Ocampo, Kuschevatzky suggested his longtime friend, actor Peter Lanzani, whom Mitre cast in the role as he considered him "one of the most interesting actors of his generation". Mariana Mitre, the film's casting director and the director's sister, opted to get unknown actors for the supporting roles of both the young investigators and the testifiers, to have "the best possible sense of verisimilitude". Mitre, along with Darín and Lanzani, decided not to have them mimic the voice and mannerisms of the actual Strassera and Moreno Ocampo, taking artistic liberty with their performances. Similarly, Laura Paredes initially tried to imitate Adriana Calvo's actual tone of voice but found it made the performance seem artificial and disconnected. She then opted to speak closer to her own tone instead, which "paradoxically" made her resemble the character more.