Enabling, Enacting, and Envisioning Societal Complicity

Abstract

Black screen. Cut. A fenced-off, seemingly abandoned building. Cut. Running. Heavy breathing. Cut. A boy, crying and begging to go, says he doesn’t want to play anymore. Sounds of shattering glass. Cut. Shouts of “You’re nothing!” and “You’re going to die!” punctuate childlike drawings of actors as credits begin to appear. The viewer, from the perspective of someone hiding, at first catches only fragmented glimpses of neighborhood children playing poliladrón, an eerie blend of hide-and-seek and cops and robbers. As the disturbing opening sequence continues, the ruthless game becomes increasingly sinister: a gun points to a boy’s head; a sniffling girl pleads to be released because the handcuffs hurt. It is with these haunting images of an otherwise familiar childhood game that Daniel Bustamante evocatively replicates the violence and terror of 1977 Argentina and introduces his first feature-length film, Andrés no quiere dormir la siesta (2009).

El cine es un campo de conflicto entre las diversas memorias.¹

—Tzvi Tal