Work on the screenplay began around five years before the film's release. After reading the first draft of the script, Darín took the main role and became a producer on the film. Production company Amazon Studios joined the project once the script was finished and the casting determined. Filming began in June 2021 and wrapped in September, taking place primarily in Buenos Aires. The film was shot where the depicted events took place, such as the original courtroom at Tribunales.
In 1985, Argentina has had a democratic government for less than two years after its last military dictatorship ended. Public prosecutor Julio César Strassera is chosen to make the government's case against the military junta for alleged crimes against humanity after the military courts declined to press charges. The junta have retained the services of senior, experienced lawyers, while Strassera struggles to find lawyers to form his prosecution team. Strassera meets Luis Moreno Ocampo, his assigned deputy prosecutor, but initially rejects his offer for help due to Ocampo's military family background. Strassera receives several death threats and is assigned a security detail.
Finding no other lawyers, Strassera accepts Moreno Ocampo's help. Moreno Ocampo, a professor, suggests that they look for young law graduates and inexperienced lawyers, as senior lawyers are unwilling to risk their reputations or safety to sign on to a trial that is so divisive amongst the public.
Strassera and Moreno Ocampo interview and assemble a team, many of whom work in government offices and can use their access to materials to help the case. Because the atrocities were committed across the country, Strassera and his team seek victims and record their testimonies. Meanwhile, he and his team face risks to their safety. Moreno Ocampo's family turn on him for going against their military history.
On the first day of the trial, the court receives a bomb threat, but Strassera convinces the judges that the trial must proceed. The trial is recorded by cameras and parts of it are broadcast around the world. Many victims of the junta testify about torture they endured or witnessed. President Raúl Alfonsín invites Strassera to meet with him and informs him that he is keeping a close watch on the court events and was deeply moved by the testimony of the witnesses. Despite this, the Attorney General angers Strassera by intimating that he should be lenient with the Air Force.
For his closing argument, Strassera realizes that he will have the chance to make his case not just to the judges in the courtroom, but to the people of Argentina and those around the world. With the help of his family, he composes an eloquent closing statement, ending: "Your Honors: never again!". The judges move into deliberations, and Strassera's team await the outcome.
A dying friend asks Strassera for details of the final sentences. Strassera lies and tells him that all the generals received life sentences. Shortly after, Strassera learns that the court is sentencing General Jorge Videla and Admiral Emilio Massera to life imprisonment, General Roberto Viola to seventeen years, Admiral Armando Lambruschini to eight years, and General Orlando Agosti to four and a half years. Dissatisfied with most of the outcomes, Strassera begins typewriting an appeal.
Alejandra Flechner as Silvia: Strassera's wife. The character is based on Marisa Tobar.[8]
Gina Mastronicola as Verónica Strassera: Strassera's daughter. The character is based on Carolina Strassera.[9]
Santiago Armas as Javier Strassera: Strassera's son. The character is based on Julián Strassera.[10]
Laura Paredes as Adriana Calvo: a woman who gave birth while kidnapped by the military government during the dictatorship and a key witness for the trial.[11][12]
Susana Pampín as Magda:[14] Moreno Ocampo's mother, who sides with the military[15]
Claudio Da Passano as Carlos "Somi" Somigliana: a playwright that helps Strassera write his final speech[16]
Héctor Díaz as Basile: one of the military junta's defense attorneys[17]
Gabriel Fernández as Bruzzo: a political operator for Raúl Alfonsín's government. The character is fictional, with his actions in the film being taken from different real-life political operative.[18]
Norman Briski as "Ruso": Strassera's mentor. The character was created for the film.[19]
Several young actors appear as part of Strassera's team, dubbed the "fiscalitos" (transl. little prosecutors):[22][23] Almudena González as Judith König, in charge of answering the phone;[24] Félix Santamaría as Carlos "Maco" Somigliana,[24] son of Carlos Somigliana;[8] Manuel Caponi as Lucas Palacios;[25] Santiago Rovito as Eduardo Manera;[26][27] Brian Sichel as Federico Corrales;[28] and Antonia Bengoechea as María Eugenia. Bengoechea is Darín's niece.[29]
Martín Rodríguez, journalist, writer, political analyst[38] and a friend of director Santiago Mitre, originally gave him the suggestion to make a film about the Trial of the Juntas in 2016.[39] Rodríguez joined the project as a historical researcher and adviser,[40] and later brought screenwriter, producer and journalist Federico Scigliano on as a collaborator, working throughout 2017.[41][40] They constructed a "'state of the art' on debates and discussions around the trial and the time",[41] offering "possible ideas, entry points, and threads" on the subject which had a certain level of topicality.[40] Their work took place in the early stages of development, when the story had not yet taken shape. They centered their work on the trial itself as a founding event of Argentine democracy.[41] Their methodology consisted of interviewing many of the people who had participated in the trial and were still alive, such as Luis Moreno Ocampo, León Arslanián, Judith König, Carlos "Maco" Somigliana, and Enrique "Coti" Nosiglia,[40] who served as Minister of the Interior for president Raúl Alfonsín in 1987.[42] Mitre attended some of those interviews, during which he searched for possible lines of dialogue and narratives, such as when Moreno Ocampo told them that his mother "attended mass with [Jorge Rafael] Videla".[40] Mitre spoke to the judges of the trial, as well as witnesses and members of the prosecutorial team, in order to understand their emotions at the time. He also met with Strassera's son Julián.[43][10]
Work on the screenplay began around five years before the film's release,[44][45] with Mitre starting the first draft during the editing stage of his previous film, The Summit (2017).[39] Originally, writer Mariano Llinás and Mitre conceived the film to be a more episodic hyperlink film, with "several intertwined stories", changing points of view, time jumps, mixing genres and including fantastical elements,[46][39] but producer Axel Kuschevatzky told them the film should be more classical in nature and focus solely on the trial, which Llinás considered liberating because it opened the door to comedic segments.[46][47] He nonetheless had difficulty writing the script, as it was based on real events, many of its characters were still alive, and the public had differing opinions on the subject.[44]
Mitre mentioned political thrillersAll the President's Men (1976) and The Post (2017) as influences for "the tension of contemporary cinema" and "a very energetic concept of group work", as well as the Chilean film No (2012), which is also about a democratic transition in Latin America.[48] Kuschevatzky also brought up Steven Spielberg, Otto Preminger, and Costa-Gavras as filmmakers they considered influential for Argentina, 1985.[49]John Ford was cited as a reference for the film for his tradition of classical cinema and comedic tone.[49][50]
Pre-production
Santiago Mitre, co-writer, director, and producer of the film
Actor Ricardo Darín, who had become friends with Mitre after starring in The Summit, suggested playing Strassera when Mitre first presented him the idea to adapt the events of the Trial of the Juntas. After reading the first draft of the script, Darín took the role, despite generally not being interested in playing characters based on real people,[51] and became a producer on the film as well.[52] To play Moreno Ocampo, Kuschevatzky suggested his longtime friend, actor Peter Lanzani,[49] whom Mitre cast in the role as he considered him "one of the most interesting actors of his generation".[51] Mariana Mitre, the film's casting director and the director's sister, opted to get unknown actors for the supporting roles of both the young investigators and the testifiers, in order to have "the best possible sense of verisimilitude".[51][53] Mitre, along with Darín and Lanzani, decided not to have them mimic the voice and mannerisms of the actual Strassera and Moreno Ocampo, taking artistic liberty with their performances.[54][55] Similarly, Laura Paredes initially tried to imitate Adriana Calvo's actual tone of voice but found it made the performance seem artificial and disconnected. She then opted to speak closer to her own tone instead, which "paradoxically" made her resemble the character more.[12]
Conversations with Amazon Studios began in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.[56] Amazon joined the project as a production company once the script was already finished and the casting was already determined. The film did not make use of funding by the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), as suggested by Amazon given they could finance it on their own.[47] The film's original title was just 1985[5] but was changed to Argentina, 1985 after Amazon's involvement out of a necessity for clarity about the film's subject.[57] Long-time Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso joined the project after watching a first version of the film,[58] which she considered to be "a pending subject", and donated her salary to the making of the film.[59]
Filming
Production was originally scheduled to begin in 2020, but it was delayed due to the pandemic.[60] Pre-production took place entirely virtually, and the crew met for the first time on set.[56] Filming began in June 2021 and lasted 10 weeks until September,[61] taking place primarily in Buenos Aires, as well as in Rosario, Santa Fe, for two days and in Salta for four days.[62][63] The film was shot at the locations where the real events took place,[64] such as the original courtroom at Tribunales, which looked "practically the same" as it did in 1985.[65] Strassera's apartment and office were sets built for the film.[61]
The same type of U-matic cameras that had originally been used to broadcast the trial were also used for its recreation during the trial scenes, in order to be able to seamlessly insert archive footage of the actual trial.[66]Javier Juliá, the cinematographer, did not want the film to look "old, or nostalgic", instead going for a more contemporary look. He also chose not to mimic the actual archive footage from the trial, in which witnesses were filmed from behind for protection, as he and Mitre wanted to make the audience "feel they were there bearing witness too". Juliá employed a large format lens with a shallower depth of field to focus on the witnesses instead of on the context around them; he shot the courtroom scenes with an Arri Alexa LF and Signature Prime lenses, using "classic and restrained camera movement" such as dolly tracks and cranes. For contrast, Juliá captured the scenes outside the courtroom with the Alexa LF and vintage Canon FD lenses. He shot with wider lenses, which brought "texture and rawness" to the footage, and hand-held camera movements to convey "the energy amongst the legal team or the tension in the Strassera household". The film was shot in a 3:2 aspect ratio, commonly used by classic 35-mm film cameras, which made them frame the film differently and helped them avoid a feeling of nostalgia.[61]
Argentina, 1985 was Micaela Saiegh's first time as an art director in a period film, having previously worked in the genre as an assistant. Mitre wanted the film not to have an aesthetic typical of the Eighties despite taking place in that decade. According to Saiegh, her job was "to be invisible", not to let her work stand out from the rest of the film and overshadow the story.[67]
Music
Spanish composer Pedro Osuna started working with Mitre's team in March 2022, writing the main themes of the music in four days,[68] during post-production for the film.[69] He announced in July 2022 that he would compose the soundtrack for the film, marking his first time as the composer of a film score.[70] Osuna was recommended by Alonso and composer Michael Giacchino, who served as musical producer for the film and had worked with Osuna in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Lightyear (2022).[71] Osuna said his purpose with the score was to connect "the viewer's subconscious with history" and to communicate the danger that those involved in the trial were at the time.[68]
The soundtrack contains a bonus track, a song titled "Nunca más," co-written and co-produced by Osuna, Alonso, songwriter Rafa Arcaute, and Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Kany García, who performs the song as well.[72] García described working on the song as "one of the greatest challenges" she faced as a musician, as she felt there was a need to treat the subject as if she had experienced the event herself.[73] The soundtrack album was released on digital platforms on 20 October 2022.[72]
In June 2022, distributor Sony Pictures label Stage 6 Films announced Argentina, 1985 would be released in Argentina on 29 September 2022.[80] In August 2022, it was revealed that the film would be released on Prime Video on 21 October, being exclusively in theaters for three weeks only.[81] Later in August, Sony announced it would no longer be distributing the film, with local company Digicine stepping in as distributor and keeping its original release date.[82] Due to the short window of exclusivity, international theater chains Cinemark-Hoyts, Cinépolis, and Showcase Cinemas refused to show the film.[83] However, local companies and independent theaters did screen the film.[84] Llinás argued that the international chains' decision not to show the film ironically helped give the film "a certain mythical stature", with people having to form long lines outside the theaters in order to see the film due to the reduced number of venues.[57]
In its first weekend in theaters in Argentina, the film debuted at number one at the box office and was seen by over 200,000 spectators in 298 theaters,[85] making it the best opening for a local film since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.[86] During its second weekend, the film maintained the top spot at the box office with over 211,000 viewers in 314 theaters.[87] By November 2022, the film had sold over a million tickets in Argentina and grossed 592million pesos.[88] It was the most-watched Argentine film of 2022,[89] and the ninth-most-watched film overall in Argentina in 2022.[90] According to the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), it ended its local theatrical run with 1,151,336 viewers and grossed 658,923,794 pesos.[4]
Internationally, the film grossed US$905,893.[1] It opened in 59 theaters in Spain, where it grossed €98,075 (US$96,133) in its opening weekend.[91][92] It ended its theatrical run in Spain with 144,300 viewers and €838,500 (US$871,621).[91][92] It was also screened in 11 theaters in Italy, opening to US$11,148 and ending its theatrical run with US$34,272.[93]
Critical response
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Argentina, 1985 has a 95% approval rating based on 64 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's consensus reads, "Justice is served in Argentina, 1985, a crusading courtroom drama that shines a light on historically somber times with refreshing levity".[94] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 78 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[95]
Guillermo Courau from La Nación, in a five-star review, called Argentina, 1985 a "necessary film" and noted how it balanced faithfulness to the real events with the creative liberties taken.[96] Juan Pablo Cinelli of Página 12 wrote that Argentina, 1985 worked as a political film but stayed focused on the trial itself, with the political context functioning as "an increasingly suffocating bubble" around it.[97] Carlos Aguilar from TheWrap praised the film's execution and considered it to be a crowd-pleaser,[98] crowd-pleaser, a label with which Pablo O. Scholz from Clarín concurred.[99]
The performances of the cast also received praise. Scholz commended the authenticity of the performances,[99] as did Michael Ordoña from Los Angeles Times, who thought the characters' humanity was particularly present in the depiction of Strassera as an ordinary man. Ordoña described Strassera's characterization as "interestingly uninteresting", which he considered a rare feat.[100]The Hollywood Reporter's Sheri Linden thought Darín's portrayal of Strassera, along with Mitre's direction, effectively conveyed the high stakes of the trial depicted in the film.[101] Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film four-out-of-five stars, highlighting Darín's acting and praising Lanzani's "attractive and sympathetic" performance. He also felt the presence of the young legal team gave the film more energy.[102] Guy Lodge at Variety highlighted Darín for Strassera's final speech, which he considered "one of the most riveting, hair-raising scenes of speechifying in recent cinema".[103] Writing for IndieWire, Sophie Monks Kaufman gave the film a "B+" and felt that Darín's performance was the main force of the film, uniting all of its different elements.[104]
The film's use of humor was generally praised by critics. Courau felt that humor was integrated as part of the characters' reality instead of as a gag or comic relief,[96] and Ordoña praised the presence of "the humor of everyday life" in the film.[100] For Scholz, Mitre successfully used humor to "demystify" the narrated events.[99] Monks Kaufman pointed out its shifts in tone, contrasting the seriousness of the trial scenes with the "Ally McBeal-esque irreverence" of Strassera's personal life.[104]
Mariana Mactas of TN praised the ensemble cast, pacing, dialogue, and staging, and all its elements in general.[105] Monks Kaufman highlighted the "nostalgic warmth" of the set design.[104] Aguilar noted the dynamism of Andrés P. Estrada's editing and the insertion of real archive footage "as if past and present converged in the same instant".[98] Lodge praised Llinás's concise script and considered Juliá's cinematography, Saiegh's art direction, and Estrada's editing were responsible for the film's "cinematic sweep and scope".[103] Linden considered that Juliá's cinematography and Pedro Osuna's musical score were the main elements that contributed an atmosphere of unease to the film.[101]
Scholz thought the film took elements of classical cinema from both Argentina and the Golden Age of Hollywood.[99] The use of Hollywood conventions in Argentina, 1985 received both compliments and criticism. Cinelli suggested Mitre employed humor as well as classical cinema tropes as a way to facilitate the audience's connection to the story.[97] Lodge also believed that Argentina, 1985 was more classical in its storytelling than other films dealing with the same subject matter, likening Mitre to filmmakers such as Aaron Sorkin and Steven Spielberg. Lodge commended Mitre's direction for balancing the emotion of the main story and the tension of secondary plots.[103] Bradshaw felt that Argentina, 1985 had "a fair bit of Hollywoodised emotion" but that the film managed it well.[102] Linden criticized the occasional appearance of legal drama tropes among other aspects of the screenplay, such as underdeveloped supporting characters and instances of flat dialogue.[101] Aguilar thought the film lacking in innovation and the final product "overly familiar", visually and narratively.[98]
^Kohan, Alexandra (25 October 2022). "Tela de juicio" [On trial]. elDiarioAR (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
^Ulanovsky, Carlos (16 October 2022). "Basada en hechos demasiado reales" [Based on too real events]. Tiempo Argentino (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 15 October 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
^ abcRodríguez, Martín; Scigliano, Federico (2 December 2022). "1985: el regreso al origen de lo que nos salió bien" [1985: returning to the origin of what went well for us]. Revista Haroldo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
^ abcPrince, Ron (November 2022). "Justice Is Served". Cinematography World. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
^Oliva, Cristian (30 September 2022). "Rosario, ciudad alcanzada por las cámaras" [Rosario, city reached by the cameras]. Mirador Provincial (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
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