Rojo

Argentina in the mid-70s. Claudio, a provincial attorney with an honest face (Dario Grandinetti from Julieta and Talk to Her) gets into an argument at a restaurant—and a dispute over a table leads to shooting. This is not the only time the screen turns red thanks to the spectacular work of Brazilian cinematographer Pedro Sotero (Aquarius). After all, the country is ruled by a right-wing military dictatorship that, during the so-called Dirty War, was known for arrests, torture, murder and above all the phenomenon ofdesaparecidos—the mysterious disappearance of inconvenient individuals who were “removed” in secret by the authorities. But not only by the government. In Rojo—the third feature film by Benjamin Naishtat, a previous award winner at New Horizons for History of Fear—the political situation simply provides the background. More important than the regime’s actions is how the situation in the country is used by ordinary Argentinians who, in other circumstances, would surely be exemplary citizens.