el año de la furia (w&d rafa russo)

Authenticity is a strange thing in cinema. Russo’s film deals with events in Montevideo in 1972 which lead up to the coup which brought on a decade of military dictatorship. However, if this film was made to be watched anywhere, it probably isn’t Montevideo. The North Americans have done this for years, but casting actors whose accents are clearly not from the place where the film is set instantly jars. Most of the secondary actors are recognisable Uruguayan faces, including my compinche Fernando Dianesi, but they are just background noise, like the moodily filmed Ciudad Vieja exteriors. The lead actors are Spanish or Argentine. Hence, the film becomes a curious study in cultural appropriation. The confusion around casting extends to the rest of the film as it seeks to engage with its political context whilst incorporating genre elements of a romantic thriller. The result is uncomfortable and consistently unconvincing. El Año de la Furia feels indicative of a trend which has been driven in recent years by the streaming giants who have significant budget to invest and are desperately seeking stories. Recent political history works as a canvas upon which a story can be drawn. The true historical events and players are exploited for the purposes of mainstream ‘entertainment’. The result is a two dimensional exposition, which cannibalises real events. Cinema is always waging a Borgesian war with actuality, (cf The Map and the Territory), but recent developments have meant that the bad habits of Hollywood have now permeated the global industry.

(Whilst not a particular fan of Tarantino, one of the most interesting elements of his work is the way he transparently manipulates and deviates from assumed ideas of historical truth in his films, as though to say it is not the duty of cinema to seek authenticity. A film like El Año de la Furia, with its closing notes and aspirations to historical accuracy fails to recognise the way in which its use of narrative and character inevitably distorts audience perception of actual events. In its defence, the filmmaker might say, ‘So did Shakespeare…’)