Educational Media Reviews Online

"So that it doesn't happen again we have to rebuild our past and understand it." Carlos Pisoni in Awakening From Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997.

In 1976 Argentina, a military coup changed the destiny of 1,000 families. Many people chose not to see what was transpiring, but between 1976 and 1983, thirty thousand politically engaged young people, were killed by torture, murdered by machine gun and thrown in mass graves, and drugged and dropped from naval airplanes into the South Atlantic Ocean. The mothers of these lost individuals formed an association (called the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) to pressure the junta for the release of and information about their children, many who were parents themselves. Twenty years later, the sons and daughters of the Disappeared formed an activist organization with the goal of educating Argentine citizens about what happened to their parents and their country throughout the Dirty War.

During 1997, filmmakers revisited this infamous period from Argentina's past creating Awakening from Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997. The general purpose of the film is to expose the buried misdeeds of the Dirty War while documenting the heartache of the youth over the absence of their parents and how they came together to form H.I.J.O.S. (Hijos e Hijas por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio). Testimony is given from physicist and clandestine center survivor Graciela Deleo, history professor/author Osvaldo Bayer, and Perez Esquivel, who was imprisoned in 1977, tortured for 18 months, and later awarded the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for his resistance. Graciela Deleo describes life in the concentration camp. Some prisoners were kept alive for two, three, or ten days before they were transferred to be assassinated. Others were there for two or three months or even up to one year then assassinated. There were cases like hers where prisoners were selected for "rehabilitation," which she states was actually brainwashing by the navy system. When they were not in another sector called the "Fishbowl" (a series of offices the Marines had set up to use the prisoners as forced labor) inmates were hooded and/or blindfolded day and night. Osvaldo Bayer compares the Dirty War with the industrial death of Auschwitz because of the thematic death and disappearance of people. When captors did not get what they wanted, they would find the wife and torture her in front of the hostage and sometimes even the victim's kids. He thinks even today, it is hard for Argentines to image that such horrific acts occurred. Perez Esquivel, speaks of how he was one of many taken on a death flight but was not thrown into the sea, because of a counter order that came through at the last minute which saved his life. The armed forces and the police tortured, killed, raped, robbed people and kidnapped children. He is still trying to comprehend this suspension of conscience and understand what was happening in these people's mind. Perez Esquivel declares that just because the dictatorship ended does not mean all is well in the country. The struggle isn't over; it's another stage of the struggle. There are serious problems in the country. Democracy means equality for everyone and the equality does not exist. He believes H.I.J.O.S. represents a consciousness about ethics, an attitude about life and a responsibility; this should give everybody hope because someone must raise the flag that was dropped.

H.I.J.O.S., are the sons and daughters of the disappeared, assassinated, and exiled political dissidents. They are very proud of the missing generation and have taken up the mission to build the country that their parents wanted. They are transforming their pain and sadness into action and are the soul of this movie. The most gut wrenching scenes of the film are those that reveal the accounts of the Disappeared with accompanying haunting black and white drawings which illustrates their ordeal. Many of the members of H.I.J.O.S. are now young adults who are left hoping and wondering about their parents. Seeing pictures takes Leopoldo Tizeira back in time, evoking moments of when he was with his father. He thought, even dreamed that since his uncle escaped maybe his father did too, maybe the state let him go, or some other wishful thing that could have happened. But, as a child this is what you wish and now he knows better. Esteban Santamaria, a history student and father to a young daughter, recounts how his mother read to him a lot and always said to him the library in their house would one day be for him when she died. He remembers thinking that she would never die; sadly, that day came too soon. When he was younger Esteban used to fantasize that he escaped over the rooftops with his mother (Cristina Morena) and they could have ended up together since they were so close. He felt guilty that he couldn't help her and felt powerless that he was not able to be with her. Carlos Pisoni, who works at the Ministry of Justice for the Human Rights Secretary, has a mental image of himself at age six when he lived in Spain. He kept thinking at the time that he would meet his mother somewhere in Europe, walking on the street or asking for spare change. These are the things that went through his head, but then he realized things would not be that way. As Graciela Gillis a psychiatrist hypothesizes in the film, the mothers know their kids are dead, but they need a statement of truth and justice about what happened to them. For others, it is different, since neither the truth nor the guilty present themselves and are not sentenced and punished, then we must pretend the Disappeared are alive; this is a necessary strategy.

Overall, Awakening From Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997 is a commendable documentary. When films or documentaries take on the subject matter of the persecution of political resisters, for obvious reasons the focus is on the sufferer. This film is slightly unique in the sense that the story is being told from the perspective of the children of the Disappeared. However, as admirable as this documentary is, it is not without some minor missteps. While the Dirty War is mentioned there was no real clear explanation of or at least a description of the events leading up to the Dirty War, so viewers could have a complete understanding of this grave episode in Argentina's history. Also, getting interviews from the "stolen" children or even from children whose parents were disappeared and returned and how it affected the family would have been interesting; just because some parents returned does not mean there were not consequences for those children and they too should have a voice.

Meanwhile, H.I.J.O.S. is still marching on the anniversary of the coup in Buenos Aires and is working with mothers and grandmothers to locate more "stolen" children. Since 1997 the amnesty for the junta members has been withdrawn and many key members of the oppression are in prison. There are now H.I.J.O.S. chapters all over Latin America and Europe. Awakening From Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997, achieves its mission by giving the voiceless a voice to expose the atrocities of the Dirty War.