Queering Paraguayan Film: 108/Cuchillo de palo (2010) and Semana capital (2010)

Abstract

This chapter analyzes a Spanish documentary by Paraguayan director, Renate Costa; and a narrative, national production directed by Hugo Cataldo Barudi, respectively. These films buck previously trends by featuring queer protagonists and by incorporating urban protagonists from the middle and upper classes. Although I argue in previous chapters that many Paraguayan films are political through allegory, Cuchillo premiered as the first to take on the Stroessner dictatorship in an overt way by shedding light on the regime’s persecution of homosexuals. Semana also pushes the envelope in the way it dares to turn the camera away from the rural poor and toward the urban elite, shedding light on their often-dysfunctional romances.