By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 1 2000 (IPS)

A new Argentine film, a blend of reality and fiction, is causing a stir after being filmed under- cover in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands – and because its plot suggests that Argentina can recover this disputed territory through sex.

The movie is called “Fuckland,” a play on the various meanings of this English-language expletive and the British name for the south Atlantic islands, which Argentineans call the Malvinas.

Six Argentineans and one British actress made the movie, filming in secret in the archipelago located southeast of Argentina. One week and a shoulder-held digital camera was all they needed.

The filmmaker-adventurers went to the islands last December, flying in as tourists and pretending they did not know each other. Their film is to premiere September 21 in Buenos Aires.

When the seven arrived in Port Stanley, they began by filming a sign at the airport that said “filming prohibited.” Then, without any sort of script, and just the bare-bones idea of a plot in their heads, they set about making their feature-length film.

Camila Heany, an unknown actress who graduated from the British Institute of Arts, was selected by the film’s directors through the Internet. She flew to Buenos Aires with the promise that she would be working on a film in Patagonia, in southern Argentina.

Heany only found out that the true location of the film shooting was to be the Malvinas/Falklands when she reached the Argentine capital. But she readily accepted the challenge.

The film’s plot is likely to spark as much debate as the way the film was made.

The story takes place on the islands that both Argentina and Great Britain claim as their own, and which sparked a war in 1982 between the two countries following the invasion spearheaded by the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983).

The story’s central character is an Argentinean man who flies to the islands with the idea that he will seduce the Malvinas women and impregnate them, and thus populate the islands with Argentinean babies.

“The film is not offensive,” director José Luis Marqués assured IPS. “It is more of a critique of Argentineans and satirises their conquests.”

“We had developed the plot before making the trip, but there was no script. The actors had to improvise constantly, in order to film a great number of scenes in a short time, and still be able to put together a decent film later,” explained the 42-year-old filmmaker.

The movie’s publicity campaign is similar to that of the US- made horror film, “The Blair Witch Project.”

Advertising is based on an Internet site (www.fuckland.com.ar) where the film’s star, Fabián S., refers to the story as if it were a real event.

Hundreds of Internet users have left messages at the website, many of who seem to believe that Fabián S. really lived the story of “Fuckland,” or they are at least playing along with the game.

Marqués, an advertising executive who makes his directorial debut with this feature-length film, said it will be shown at a film festival this November in London.

“The British distributors very enthusiastically accepted the film,” said the novice director.

“My project was to experiment with the genre that mixes reality and fiction because it allows a unique kind of narration,” said Marqués. “I wanted to make a film without others realising that I was doing so.”

“This quest happened to coincide with the political decision to once again authorise Argentinean flights to the Malvinas Islands,” he said.

Though he insists that the film does not defend a political position or support any claims on the islands, he acknowledges that it does include humorous depictions of the politics “of seduction” that Argentina’s foreign minister Guido Di Tella promoted during the Carlos Menem government (1989-1999).

Di Tella used to send gifts to the island dwellers, such as videos, books and toys, convinced that this would win their trust.

But before launching that strategy, Di Tella had failed in a more prosaic attempt: offer each family on the islands compensation in order to convince them to accept Argentinean sovereignty over the islands.

That proposal, which could only work in fiction, was part of the inspiration behind Marqués’ choice of the Malvinas/Falklands to experiment with an undefined film genre, one that has been little used so far, somewhat ironically known as “real fiction.”

Like Heany, Fabián Stratas is also an unknown actor, but he happens to speak English very well. His character, who has the same name, has one objective: recover the Malvinas Islands for Argentina by making love, not war.

“The fact that they are virgin actors (first-time on the big screen) reinforces the experience of fiction-reality,” Marqués said.

The rest of the people appearing in the film never knew it was “fiction-reality.” The extras were the islands’ inhabitants who participated in various dialogues with the film’s “stars.”

The camera is always in sight – sitting on a table or in Stratas’ lap – and passes off as a typical accessory of any true tourist.

“The islanders never saw the film, but I found out by Internet that some had heard about it and had asked the government to show it there. But that would be difficult because there is a very strict censorship council and the only theatre is on a military base,” said Marqués.

“I would love for them to see the film,” he said, despite the possibility that some of the people on the island might not think it too funny after being duped by the film team, which was made up of the two actors, a sound engineer, a camera operator, a production chief, an assistant, and the director.

“Fuckland” was made according to the system created by Danish director Lars von Trier, known as Dogma 95, which shuns excessive manipulation of the film – whether it is lighting, sound or editing – and includes other rules that constitute the group’s “vow of chastity.”

Since Dogma was created in 1995, just 14 films have joined the ranks of this select club. Five are Danish, including the better- known “Celebration,” three were made in the United States, one each in Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea, and now Argentina.

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