The Official Story (Spanish: La historia oficial) 1985

Can we start by rejecting all conventional and established social institutions consisting of family, community, culture, education, marriage, religion, government, legal, judicial, healthcare, mass media, political and social welfare?

How can we discard this system considering we were born into this organism? What is the alternative? Do we have a choice?

Are we aware that all is not well in our world, all is not quite alright? – but we choose to ignore the fact – and prefer not to do anything about it. We have a preference not to ask questions and believe blindly whatever we read in our history (story) books.

Outside of Argentina very few of us are even aware of the repressive days of the late 1970s to early 1980s by the military junta and the days leading to the Falkland War. Totalitarianism is always the same throughout the world.

La Historia Oficial (The Official Story) directed by Luis Puenzo is an eye opening film. The story takes place shortly after the coup d’etat by the Military Junta ( 1976-1983).


What looks implausible is that how could possibly a history teacher be so blind to the environment around her while even reporting one of her students who remarks that "History is written by assassins”. What the student probably meant was that history was and is written from the point of view of those who are in charge and those who win the conflict.

One is led to feel that the protagonist even though being a history teacher represents the general mass of any country that practices a life time of complacent ignorance and apathy and is unaware of the horrors unleashed by a (paradoxically) democratically elected authoritarian government.

This awakening and realization of the horrors that occurred in Argentina without the protagonist’s consciousness could very well parallel several situations occurring in the world even today.

Human endurance on one side and brutality on the other goes hand in hand since time immemorial. We are perennially in a state of denial - We allow what happens around us.


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Abeerdeen (2000)

Watched Stellan Skarsgård’s (who convincingly plays the character of an alcoholic) Abeerdeen (2000) and came out with a relief that the director Hans Petter Moland does not give us any moral lesson and does not tell us what to think. You are left on your own to make up your own mind!

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The 47 Ronin (1941) - Kenji Mizoguchi

The 47 Ronin was released in 1941 during WWII. Kenji Mizoguchi’s cerebral 3 hour and 40 minutes film will really take into task the most ardent film buffs.

This samurai movie is in Japanese language, shows a different culture and a different time period (18th century historical event), most of the characters are clothed alike with unusual and unfamiliar names.

It peeps into the world of hara-kiri – a ceremonial suicide by slicing the stomach until the bowels spill out, then decapitated by a accomplished swordsman.

No blood is spilled, neither is there an exhibition of swordsmanship skills. It's strictly a historic drama


No sarcasm intended but this two-part film is not for everyone. It is tormentingly slow paced, colossally lengthy and necessitates a lot of endurance.

A must see in one’s lifetime.

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-seven_r%C5%8Dnin


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You will be what you are!

If Human beings are left totally free, they would all become like Idi Amin/Kim Jong II/Saddam Hussein/Josef Stalin/Adolf Hitler/Mao Zedong/Benito Mussolini/Francisco Franco/Muammar Gaddafi/... . But how did they become like them? Were they totally left free to become what they became? Or was it that they created themselves because of their ability alone and not by the submissive and psychotic masses who wanted someone like these totalitarians to have authority over them?




Are you thriving to crave for a life under authoritarians?

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The Cranes are Flying (Letyat Zhuravli)

If you are a misanthropist, you will become more cynical after watching a film which is unknown to the general mass. The portrayal of war and the effects it has on the common people is cataclysmic. Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying (1957) is a masterpiece of film making.

Cinematographic effects, shots, acting, direction, camera angles, mise-en-scène, themes, creativeness……astounding!

The scenes of Veronica in the midst of the tanks, wriggling through the crowds when Boris is about to leave for war, Veronica running up the stairs to her apartment after the German air bombing only to confront that there is nothing left of her home, Boris’ death scene, Veronica trying to clutch on to hope that Boris will return while the observer learns early of his fate leaves a bleak environment, Veronica in the verge of committing suicide but timely saving a young kid and the last scene of Veronica moving frantically amongst the victorious crowd are indelible from one’s mind.

After watching this work one will be left to realize that seeking a meaning to life is as futile as life itself.