Une sale petite guerre

Funny Dirty Little War is a movie directed by Héctor Olivera. This film serves as a reflection on the chaotic situation that Argentina went through in the years preceding the so called "Process of national reorganization".

The script is precise and compact; it doesn't waste scenes or characters and tells all it needs to tell in less than eighty minutes. The story takes place in Colonia Vela, a small town in the province Buenos Aires. The year is 1974, at this period of time Peronismo was the dominant political party and dissidents were persecuted. A left-leaning municipal delegate is falsely accused of being a communist and decides to take up arms and control the municipality, helped by a small group of improvised allies, to demand for his innocence. What ensues is a useless and destructive conflict between the Peronist right and left wing that exemplifies the absurd nature of the internal quarrels that wreaked havoc and paved the way for the extreme right dictatorship that would take over the power in Argentina in 1976.

This film doesn't just drive a message, but also showcase Olivera's direction, dynamic and spectacular, but without going over the edge and becoming ridiculous. There are lots of shootouts, explosions and special effects in this production that is both pioneering and superior to the others that Héctor Olivera directed in association with the Northamerican producer Roger Corman in later years (The White Death, from 1985, is a good example).

The script has a good dose of humor that is used to highlight the absurdity of the situation. This humorous tone is backed by the cast, overflowing with talent. All these aspects help to create familiarity and complicity with the spectator, this comfortable atmosphere is violently shattered in the second half of the film, moving the spectator and reinforcing the impact of the message.

In conclusion, Funny Dirty Little War is a great movie that presents a heavy loaded message in a very entertaining package. I highly recommend it for anyone who appreciates good cinema, although I must say that some knowledge of Argentinian history is necessary to understand this movie completely.

This is the translation of a review first published in FilmAffinity, on the 23 of September of 2020. Written by Germán Dawidowski, translated with the help of Paula Marrodan.

Prior to his return to Argentina in June 1973, former president Juan Domingo Perón, living in exile in Spain, summoned the left wing of his Peronist Party (Montoneros, Peronist Youth and other groups) to create the conditions that would press the military government into allowing him to come back to Argentina and to be a candidate in national elections. Since his overthrow in 1955 he had been banished from Argentina and the Peronist Party was not allowed to participate in elections.

The Peronist left, especially the Montoneros, carried out their assignment to perfection creating, by means of guerrilla actions, a climate of tension and uncertainty that convinced the military that the return of Perón was the only alternative to an outright civil war.

At the head of his party Perón won the elections in July 1973 by a large margin. Almost immediately he began to appoint to key government positions members of the Peronist right and of organizations like the AAA = Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. There were rumblings from the Montoneros and the left. In May 1974, in a stunning betrayal, Perón disowned the Montoneros in a public speech, in fact expelling them from the Peronist party. The speech had the (intended or unintended) consequence of encouraging the AAA, the military intelligence services and the police to hunt the Peronist left down. It was the official start of the Dirty War, which became especially murderous when the military took power in 1976, lasted until 1981 and cost 30,000 lives.

Osvaldo Soriano's novel No Habrá Mas Pena ni Olvido narrates the initial stages of the Dirty War in the fictional small town of Colonia Vela. The title of the novel is taken from the lyrics of a tango sung by Carlos Gardel in the thirties and still known by heart by Argentines of all ages; it literally translates into (a place or a time where) "there will be no suffering or forgetting" and it is associated with Peron's return, that happens sometime before the action takes place. The novel can be qualified as "perfect"; it is short and to the point, intense and deeply moving.

Soriano (a journalist in Jacobo Timerman's prestigious but short lived newspaper "La Opinión") took the Argentine literary establishment by storm. He was an admirer (but not an imitator) of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and his writing style was seldom seen in Argentina outside of pulp fiction; relentless, nonstop action peppered with black humor, supported by spare, at times telegraphic dialogue. Characters come to life through their actions more than through their words.

Director Hector Olivera has done a very good job of putting Soriano's novel on screen, although some of the most violent action is better described (as in the book) than shown. He is supported by an excellent cast, the best Argentine actors of the time: Federico Luppi, Ulises Dumont, Julio de Grazia and the veteran Lautaro Murúa in a short but essential role. The other actors are equally excellent.

Olivera has been involved (either directing or producing) with more than fifty Argentine movies from 1951 to 2010, most of them through his own production company, Aries Cinematográfica founded with director Fernando Ayala in 1956. Most of this movies have been straight commercial fare, some box-office hits. With the profits, Olivera has been able to produce/direct quite a few quality films. A Funny Dirty Little war is one of them. See the film, then read Soriano's novel if possible in its original Spanish.

Osvaldo Soriano, the author of the novel in which this film is based, got his title from the lyrics of a famous popular tango. His satire was against the military regime that came into being after the second Peron government, a dark period for Argentina, indeed. Hector Olivera directed the film with great sense of style. The screen play was an adaptation by the director and Roberto Cossa.

The story takes us to a small town in the interior of the country where a man, who works for the city, has been singled out as being a communist and must be eliminated from his job. The mayor, Ignacio Fuentes, a man of principles, decides to confront the bullies that are trying to impose their own values and have the support of the big man in town, Suprino, who is dead set in purging the bad element from the municipal government, even though Fuentes, is a man that has followed Peron.

The confrontation turns violent as Fuentes and his loyal employees do the impossible to resist the attack Suprino, and Llanos, who is in charge of the army, start shooting with all they have. The hand of a strong man is behind all they are doing. Guglielmo, a rich and powerful man wants to have the rebels killed. There is a funny incident in which an aviator, Cervino, loads his small one engine plane with manure and flies all over the people that are fighting Fuentes and drops his "odorous" cargo.

The DVD we saw recently is of poor quality. Not having seen the original print, we can't make any assessments, but the story suffers as the dark colors predominate, leaving us in the dark during some key scenes.

A great cast was assembled for this film. Some of the best Argentine actors of stage and screen can be seen in it. Best of all, Federico Luppi, who makes Fuentes the best thing in the movie. Hector Bidondi is seen as Suprino. Lauraro Murua plays Dr. Guglielmi, the man behind creating the conflict. Miguel Angel Sola, Victor Laplace, Tacholas, Ulises Dumont, Rodolfo Ranni, are seen in key supporting roles.

The film reflects a sad moment in the history of Argentina.

Based on a satire by novelist Osvaldo Soriano, this bitter work is also set in the author's abstract rural Argentine village of Colonial Vela in 1974, the year of Juan Perón's death, and is intended as an allegory relating to events that led to a military takeover of the government. It features Federico Luppi whose stated liberal political ideals assured that he would have a lengthy period of cinematic unemployment. Serving as microcosm in a kettle for national turmoil, perceptions of Perón held by two disparate political factions in Colonial Vela are at cross-purposes with right-wing Perónists attempting to oust a municipal clerk whom, although apolitical, is accused of being a Marxist, with a result that his superior, the town administrator (Luppi), comes to the clerk's physical defence against massed forces including the mayor, chief of police and union organizers, along with a collection of hardcore rightists. Farcical humour is employed by director Héctor Olivera, but always in company with cruel violence, disconcerting to a viewer who is not only alert to what may occur next, but also incapable of divining what that may be, thanks to excellent acting by Luppi, Rodolfo Ranni as police chief, Héctor Bidonde as head of the collective right-wingers, and indeed the entire cast is spot on the corrosive intentions of Olivera. This production was shot in the province of Buenos Aires while the ruling generals were yet in power, and was released in the midst of the election period in 1983 when leftist radicals retired the Perónists, an event that this work helped bring about, in large part due to a graphic depiction of right-wing death squads, murdered hostages and torture, being most certainly a film of seminal importance to those having knowledge of the Perónist period; an English language subtitled version is available with translation from the Castilian original being adequate, despite the clumsily created title. In all respects, this is a tightly made effort, not for fans of Evita, either the person or the musical feature.