RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Madres Activists Play Themselves in Film

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 19 2002 (IPS) - Seven members of the Argentine human rights group Madres de Plaza de Mayo will make an appearance – as themselves – in a new blockbuster film with Spanish actor Antonio Banderas and British actress Emma Thompson.

The organisation, whose name means simply Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, was created during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina by women demanding to know the fate of their sons and daughters, who were taken away by the security forces and never heard from again.

Although the activists have appeared hundreds of times on stage and in television programmes and documentaries, this is the first time they will take part in a fictional film.

Every Thursday, for the past 26 years, mothers and other relatives of the dictatorship’s victims of forced disappearance have marched around the pyramid-shaped monument in the middle of the Plaza de Mayo, the square located in front of the Casa Rosada (the presidential palace).

“The worst thing was having to wear summer clothes in the middle of winter,” commented one of the Madres who took part this month in the filming of “Imagining Argentina”, directed by Christopher Hampton, one of Britain’s most renowned contemporary playwrights.

The film, which is based on a novel by the same name, written by Lawrence Thornton, tells the story of a journalist – played by Thompson – and her daughter, who were abducted, tortured and “disappeared” during the de facto regime.

It also tells the story of her husband – played by Banderas – a theatre director who endlessly searches for his wife and daughter, and marches in the weekly demonstrations in the Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires.

Banderas’ character has an extrasensory ability that enables him to detect the whereabouts of the “disappeared” by gazing into the eyes of their loved ones – an idea that has led critics to warn that the film may not receive the warmest welcome from human rights groups when it is released next year.

But the director – who is best-known for his Oscar-winning screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons (1988) – says the idea is not risky, but merely a tool used to demonstrate that the dictatorship failed to crush the imaginations of many of its victims, who were able to keep their minds free of military control, despite the torture.

The members of Madres de Plaza de Mayo-Línea Fundadora (Founding Line), one of the two branches into which the original group split, gave the screenplay their approval, have enthusiastically supported the filming, and agreed to appear in one scene, in which they march around the pyramid.

“We were exhausted after 12 hours of work, but were happy because they treated us so well,” Josefina Noia, who was fitted out for summer clothing similar to the styles used 25 years ago, read the screenplay, and took part in the filming, chanting the slogans that the Madres came up with so many years ago, told IPS.

“We were doing things right because we’re used to it, but many of the women who appeared as extras kept getting too far away from the pyramid and wandering out of the scene, and we would have to repeat the filming,” explained Noia, who talked about suffering the cold of the southern hemisphere winter in the summer clothes in which the Madres appear in the scene.

The Madres welcomed the film, which they believe will be useful to help keep alive the memory of the brutal human rights violations committed by the dictatorship, which “disappeared” more than 10,000 real or suspected opponents of the regime according to official figures, and 30,000 according to human rights groups.

“Everything good that is said about Banderas is not enough,” said Noia, who was captivated by the kindness of the Spanish actor. She also spoke well of Thompson, Hampton and U.S. actress Melanie Griffith, Banderas’ wife, who was present during the filming and was moved to tears by the scene of the Madres in the Plaza de Mayo.

In that scene, the Madres and the extras, wearing the activists’ trademark white headscarves and carrying placards with the names and photos of the “disappeared”, chanted “They Took Them Away Alive, We Want Them Back Alive”.

“Since the headscarves we use now are new, they gave us white cloth diapers to wear,” which fit in better with the period details, said Noia.

Laura Bonaparte, another member of the organisation who took part in the filming, said she agreed to participate after reading the screenplay and meeting the director, who visited her at her home along with his Argentine director of photography, Guillermo Navarro.

“The actors earned our trust. They are not at all pretentious, and they are committed to defending human rights, and are aware of the barbarity of forced disappearances of human beings,” said Bonaparte, who chatted at length with Thompson during breaks in the filming.

The activist said the box office attraction of the film would help spread the word of the activities of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and the tragic stories of the women who have been searching for their loved ones – or at least the truth about what happened to them, as well as their remains, to give them a proper burial – for a quarter century.

Thompson said that this time around, the challenge of her role was more political and social than artistic.