Rojo
Directed by Benjamin Naishtat
Argentina | 2018 | Fiction | 109 min
Spanish w/ English subtitles
Film Source: Distrib Films USA
Awards/premier festivals: San Sebastian Film Festival - Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor
Sponsors: Vermont Wine Merchants
Also showing:
Tues, Oct 22 | 4:15PM | BB
What was the Argentinian mindset immediately preceding Jorge Rafael Videla’s right-wing military coup? Director Benjamin Naishtat’s (History of Fear; The Movement) darkly funny, highly stylish film immerses itself in Argentina’s collective conscious in 1975, resulting in an X-ray image of seeping moral decline under the guise of a murder mystery. The underlying tension is palpable throughout and affects all walks of life. Tense relations with the U.S. are also brought in through an incident with American cowboys, hinting indirectly at American involvement in the coup. But the film is primarily concerned with the disintegration of morals and society during times of uncertainty and lawlessness through the perspective of a complicit middle–class community, including a respectable judge and his family. It conveys the very gradual erosion of respect for human beings as each change brings about a “new normal.” ~OY