Infancia clandestina

Clandestine Childhood is a coming of age story with a difference. As the title suggests, it is growing up under secrecy. The film is set in 70's Argentina where the military junta rules the country and opposition groups are clandestinely active. We follow a 12 year old son of one of these revolutionary couples who is growing up under a cloud of secrecy to protect the identity of his parents. The boy is a normal child who wants to invite his friends home, have a girlfriend and all that but can not do so due to the risk of exposing his parents who are wanted by the military dictatorship.

The politics and the history, though ever present, are kept firmly in the background and the film focuses on the boy's story. The fact that the film is based partly on the director's own childhood, and specially knowing (as he told the audience after a screening) that his mother was one of the "disappeared" during that era, makes the film very poignant. An added bonus is the great music in the film.

Infancia Clandestina is a very touching movie.

This review is written by an Argentinian so I felt it as a very interesting film in terms of script and acting, but more interesting as a historical testimony of our "dark ages" in terms of dictatorship and guerrilla. It would be fair to write the review in Spanish in order to put my feelings properly, but IMDb is mostly an English language site so I want to give other people from foreign countries my point of view with the little English I speak.

From my perspective, the movie is accurately told in terms of storyline. I would recommend it as a documentary, because Benjamín Avila relived his own experience on this movie, and because most of the facts really happened (with the names changed and that sort of thing).

The fact that underlines the tragic story of Juan/Ernesto, is that he is, as a child, forced to live in a world of fear, constantly missing what we think a normal childhood should be. His parents are loving ones but put him in abnormal situations in terms of caring for their livings and raise their children in those violent conditions. In fact, the story of the 70's here was that fearful and violent. You are obliged to take a part in the story. That's what the film left me. It's a thought- provoking one. And asks a lot of questions more than it tells answers.

Ernesto Alterio (very good in his role) as Tío Beto is the bond of Juan/Ernesto to a happy childhood; but even with knowing how his life could end from one moment to another, tried to remind Juan/Ernesto and the rest of the family, those little moments of humanity that could have been forgotten in the middle of tragedy. There is plenty of humanity, but that feeling is volatile and more close to self-indulgence than true happiness, knowing the curse of events.

On the other hand, the guiding line of Juan/Ernesto's family is that he 'd become one of their "soldiers" when he'd grown up. Rootless, full of hate for losing one by one his loved ones, Juan/Ernesto becomes an adult from one day to another.

But this review is not complete if I don't give you a personal opinion of the whole situation.

Ideologies, partidisms, dogma, they all conceived death as a part of them. During the movie I often compared the situation with Islamic children (or whoever is forced to live in war since a child). They are children, and they are manipulated taking part on massacres, kidnaps, war and dismemberance of their families. They are brutally witnessing the grown-ups stupidity, the absurd sacrifice. Yes, it was absurd then and it's absurd now. And that's the thing with the title of this review. Even a kid could realize the barbarism, the destruction of life that is presented in the movie. Unfortunately there is little room for choice.

I'm not in position to judge the events since I was born after the dictatorship. I'm a son of democracy (whatever that means) and those stories are told to me, but fortunately I didn't have to live those tragic times. But I feel sorry for those kids who had a sad childhood and couldn't choose for a better life. And I blame the dictatorship as well as the contraire ideologies that put them in those awful and despicable situations.

Coming back to the movie, it's a must. Even if you're not Argentinian. It's beautiful and a bit surrealistic. And it makes you think that some things can never be repeated for our children's sake.

Greetings from Argentina!

This was the Argentina's submission for last year's American Academy Awards and failed to make into the final five. But it was a clean sweep in Argentinian Academy Awards in the same year. Forget that past sad occurrence, I mean the Oscars, this movie was great and I liked it very much. After a very long gap I saw an Argentinian movie reckoning to be a good and it was. I am satisfied and glad I saw it which was loosely based on the director's real life story when he was a child.

This story was told from the perspective of a kid called Juan. His parents are the activists during the Cold War known as the Dirty War. After their return to the home country with different names, Juan joins the school known as Ernesto. He finds hard to understand his parents' behaviour, but comfortably settles with his new fake name with a little help from his uncle. The problem arises when his true identity matters the most. Whether he reveals or not is the crux of the movie's end.

In my recent watch I had seen the people who struggle while protesting in a country's revolution. It might be based on real like 'NO' or fictional like 'Night Train to Lisbon', but majority of them end in heartbreak tragedy. Similarly, this movie opened its account in a simple manner like most of the drama that based on the revolution theme. Yes, of course it confuses at first about what's going on then slowly explain the situation. But all the difference and racy pace emerge suddenly in the last quarter of the movie. Till then I was in the movie trying to concentrate, but then instantly put me on the edge of my seat with cute romance and followed by thriller. That, the end portion of the story of last 10-15 minutes took the movie to the heights.

Yes, like I said the movie kicks off with a slow and boring pace with nothing much to enjoy earlier and ends in a style. Some movies are largely depends on the story's end solution and so this. To me it looked fine movie, different people will have different opinions, so watch it by yourself and express yours.

I stumbled across this during quarantine and I'm really glad I did. It was not what I expected, but often times thats a good thing and this film was no exception. If you can get by the political aspects of the film, something I try to do, and just watch it for the story and archs of the characters, it is quite powerful. If you choose to research the political aspects of the film, I encourage you to do so. I'm not going to single out any performances as they were good-not great- however they were more than enough to fuel this magnificent script. I'll mark the production value with the same mark as the cast, but again, more than enough there to carry you on this journey. You will cry, you will cheer, the absence of either would make me question your humanity. Give it a go!

A totally dramatic, deep and emotional film, I highly recommend it.