18-j

"18-J" or "July 18th" is a wide-screen, full-length feature film produced in Argentina. The film is comprised of 10 ten-minute shorts by ten of the most popular directors in Sudamerica (South America). July 18th, 1994 is the date upon which terrorists parked and detonated a bomb-laden van in front of the AMIA Building, killing 86 people and wounding over 300 others. AMIA is the Argentina-Israeli Mutual Association, a charity, and this incident signifies the largest single incident of terrorism against Jews since World War II. Each Director portrays his or her memory and impression of that day in their own unique and stylized way. The ten short films are shown in a sequence which flows smoothly and cannot avoid drawing out an emotional reaction from the viewer.

On 17 July 1994, Brazil won the Soccer World Cup for the fourth time.

On the next day, in Buenos Aires, a van loaded of bombs in the Once District was detonated by terrorists in an attack to the AMIA, Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, which had people working for its centenary party and killing eighty-five persons and injuring three hundred. This was the bloodiest terrorist attack in South America.

A group of ten Argentinean directors decided to prepare this docudrama composed of ten 10-minute shorts with their individual view of this unforgiving crime in homage to the sad event. The result is a heartbreaking film, extremely important to keep the memory of the happening and spread it to the world

(1) Adrián Caetano ("86") opens with a beautiful sequence of images with an awesome music score simulating an explosion and a blind man that apparently does not see it. (2) Daniel Burman exposes the behavior of people that lived and worked in the district after the explosion. (3) Lucía Cedrón ("Mitzvah") makes the best short with a subtle tale, showing a couple of elders that are going to travel abroad to visit their daughter and in the end the daughter comes to Buenos Aires after the bombing to bury them. (4) Alberto Lecchi ("El Llamado" – "The Call") shows the despair of a mother that lives in the countryside far from Buenos Aires after the terrorist attack. (5) Juan Bautista Stagnaro ("La Divina Comedia" – "Dante's Inferno") makes a weird tale with youngsters in an examination about Dante's Inferno. (6) Marcelo Schapces ("La Ira de Dios" – "The Wrath of God") shows a Jewish family where a teenager questions their tradition and feels the wrath of God. (7) Mauricio Wainrot ("Lacrimosa" – "The Tearful") shows a ballet. (8) Adrián Suar ("Sorpresa" – "Surprise") shows a young man that comes to Buenos Aires to a Jewish ceremony and dies. (9) Alejandro Doria ("Vergüenza" – "Shame") makes the most powerful short, with a touching monologue of the actress Susú Pecoraro that tells the truth about the poor investigation of President Menem and accuses the lack of justice in her country. (10) Carlos Sorín ("La Memoria" – "The Memory") closes this docudrama with the heartbreaking exposure of the pictures of the victims of this insanity with the soundtrack of Aria 12 of the Handel's Opera Rinaldo.

My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Memória de Quem Fica" ("Memory of Who Stays")