Monday 27 February 2017

Around the World: Argentina


This film showed me how little I know about Argentina and the musical Evita.

I should point out that Eva Doesn't Sleep and Evita are only connected as their stories centre around Eva Perón. I should also point out that I didn'y make this connection until about 20 minutes into the film.

 
Split into three chapters; The Embalmer, The Transporters and The Dictator with Gael Garcia Bernal book ending the film as admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, narrating the story of how he had been searching for 25 years for 'that women', referring to Perón's body which went missing. The Embalmer cleans and preseves Eva's body so that it can be kept for years and shares the moment he completes to a shy girl who wishes to see Eva. The Transporters are two soliders charged with taking Eva to a secret location but end up in a vicious argument. The Dictator is the kidnapping of President Pedro Eugenio Aramburu by revolutionaries who demand to know where Eva's body is.

Despite being somewhat straight forward story and how Eva affected people, an idol, a mission, an inspiration, there is a mystical element to the story to. The constant presecence of this being that doesn't say a word, but embodies so much more to the people of Argentina is fascinating. I'm sure there are other films about Perón but this was a unique way of telling the story of how her body disappeared for decades. A interesting look at a part of history I didn't know about.


I have never seen Evita on stage or the film all I knew about Perón was the song 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' which is now even more tragic than when I first heard it.

Keep an eye out for  upcoming films HERE and if you can suggest any films from any country, let me know!