Deuda

Quotes of "Lanata clears...",published in the Buenos Aires Herald by Marcelo Garcia Avila. "Jorge Lanata blends two qualities difficult to find together in the argentine media:the sharp eye that makes the journalist plus sensitivity that makes the human being""In Deuda,Who owes who?,Lanata is and is not Michael Moore (this is a comparison no reviewer of this film can get away without)On the one hand he is the best Michael Moore,the Moore of Bowling for Columbine (...)Like Moore,Lanata is the main character of his own documentary (...) but unlike Moore,whose queries lead to a cynical view of US society,Lanata never fully gets into slashing anu fundamentally-wrong Argentine essence.There are many Moore-type villains in Deuda,many Charlton Hestons,if you want.But ultimately,the enemy is well within (as if the real question were not who did what ,but what AM I doing with this),and the waters are parted between those who can and those who can't sleep at night.Who owes who?"

Here is a movie which in its own rights tells you a story without an ending or an answer. This is where Lanata and Michael Moore part company. However, a lot of the documentary style of Deuda seems coincidental with Moore's. From the eyes of a starving school girl to the Director of the IMF, Anne Krueger, we see a collection of individuals trying to explain that that can not be explained. Where did 180 billion dollars go? Who is responsible? the borrower or the lender? both? It doesn't matter who is responsible. The stark reality is that millions of children, whether in Argentina or other countries of Latin America or Africa, or for realism, here in the USA, are starving and dying because we do not make those responsible accountable. A great little documentary, fun, fast moving and a kick-ass soundtrack, and for a change, an Argentine movie with clear sound. If you get a chance, don't miss this jewel.

I'm Argentine and I'm writing from Argentina. I do not belong to any political party, neither I'm from the right, and I have a member from my family killed by the last military government 30 years ago. Anyway, some time ago I saw a photo of Lanata supposedly in Afghanistan near a tank wearing a black suit and a tie! That was on the front cover of his '23' Argentine magazine. He pretended to be a war correspondent, but he is a prejudiced man, and he always seeks answers in his leftist ideology instead of studying the facts and looking for the tracks. When the LAPA plane accident in Aeroparque -Buenos Aires-, he transmitted the plane crash live on TV, reporting minutes after the crash that it was the company's fault. He went hours with critics to the owners of the company, instead of waiting for an investigation. The fact that always remains is that he prefers to be every time against any capitalist system or company instead of searching the truth, which is a hard work to do. Lanata's got a huge ego. He does not care about the truth, he is a real fraud. About "Deuda" I will say on his behalf that there's a tradition in my country -and in many Latinamerican countries- that all disgraces are due to foreign countries, nothing is our fault. (Peron blamed the 'sinarquía international.' ¿What's that?) Most probably any moment from now Lanata will be making a movie about how the Twin Towers never existed!

A lot was said about the similarities between Lanata and Michael Moore these days. I have to say I'm absolutely partial to both of them, but the points in common I've seen go, in my opinion, beyond my personal taste. This comparison will serve well to express my opinion of Deuda.

First of all, when you go to the cinema to watch Deuda or Farenheit 911, you go to watch Lanata or Moore. You know them well, are quite keen on them and share most of their points of view. They became cult authors because they reflect their personalities in their works.

They also share a way of speaking to their audience: they are very colloquial, their speech lacks any superfluous complexity. They want us to understand and don't hide behind pompous rhetoric. They call a spade a spade.

Lanata and Moore speak about things that bother and hurt them. They are in contact with certain aspects of reality that disturb them and they show their discomfort or anger or sadness. They allow themselves to be expressive, even risking to be considered partial by the narrow-minded. And maybe they are subjective, but who can be impartial when reality hurts?

Finally, they are themselves: they allow themselves to be ironic or very straight-forward or emotional. They don't limit their work to be plainly informative, they pose argumentation's, appeal to us to think, to try figure out the answers for ourselves. And many times they ask without knowing the answer, but trying to commit us to find them. Lanata and Moore are reinventing the definition of documentary in an age when just knowing is not enough.

Deuda was very moving and very disturbing. Put my mind in motion. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth: there's no easy solutions, and while we debate who's to blame for the Argentinean economical and political problems, people starve. But maybe the solution of these problems, as those of many other problems, resides in us thinking about them, being more conscious and responsible and critical, and taking a personal interest in current affairs. Even if this doesn't solve anything, it will be good to know we're not blindfolded anymore.

Deuda is an excellent yet painful essay about our place in the world.

Deuda is a great (art)documentary explaining the origin of the Argentina debt (although not absolutely since many things are uncertain)

The direction is truly amazing, I never saw an Argentinian production with so much variety in a film.

The only problem I saw was the pacing, it was not right. The edition confuses at some moments since they put scenes with people who do not have direct relation with the people to who they are being spoken.

Leaving that flaw, I really liked this movie. Even if you expect some kind of Michael Moore wannabe movie, this movie is interesting and you will learn what really happens to us, the Argentineans.

The guilty are those people who manipulates us from the North or us ?

*****/***** (5 stars) A must see