Cinema and Recent Past in Argentina: Representations of Illegal Detention Centers

In Argentina, the last military dictatorship ruled between 1976 and 1983. Since the return of democracy in December of 1983, a variety of means have -to a large extent- made it possible to unravel and represent the horror endured during the years of the so-called "National Reorganization Process." The aim of this presentation is to address the different discourse strategies used in motion pictures representing the kidnapping, torture, and forced disappearance of persons during the last military dictatorship. To this end, I have selected Argentine films that, having been produced in different decades, allow me to trace an historical evolution in the treatment of this topic. These films portray the adaptation to life in illegal detention centers in different ways. From an analytical perspective, my starting point in each chapter is a "memory cycle", a concept I shall often resort to, since it defines the different socio-historical periods in post-dictatorship Argentina