Cinesur

As the third installment in an ongoing series of muckraking documentaries by Argentine filmmaker Fernando Solanas that investigate various sociological aspects of South America's second-largest nation (following 2004's Memoria del saqueo and 2005's La Dignidad de los nadies), Latent Argentina springboards from a truth little-known to most of the titular country's residents: Argentina owns more wealth and more innate natural resources than almost any nation on its continent. The possessor of a bountiful shoreline, endless acres of tillable farmland, the fourth largest metal reserves on the planet and a remarkable space program (the fourth in the world to send a human being into space), Argentina nevertheless remains a prisoner of backward and disadvantageous economical, political and social systems.

After the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, successive democratic governments launched a series of reforms purporting to turn Argentina into the world's most liberal and prosperous economy. Less than twenty years later, the Argentinians have lost literally everything: major national companies have been sold well below value to foreign corporations; the proceeds of privatizations have been diverted into the pockets of corrupt officials; revised labour laws have taken away all rights from employees; in a country that is traditionally an important exporter of foodstuffs, malnutrition is widespread; millions of people are unemployed and sinking into poverty; and their savings have disappeared in a final banking collapse. The film highlights numerous political, financial, social and judicial aspects that mark out Argentina's road to ruin.

After the end of the military dictatorship in Argentina in 1983, Floreal is released from prison. Instead of returning to his wife, he wanders through the night of Buenos Aires. He meets some people from his past–most of which are only imaginary–and remembers the events of his imprisonment.

After Memoria del saqueo, La dignidad de los nadies, Argentina latente and La próxima estación, Solanas begins with Oro puro a diptych on the plundering of mineral resources (metals and hydrocarbons). This remarkable and powerful documentary denounces the open-pit cyanide mining operations carried out by multinationals in the northwest with the support of politicians, exposes the progressive contamination of soil and water, and exalts social resistance movements through moving individual and collective examples.

Last homage to the great director Fernando Solanas, dear to our hearts, who came multiple times in Competition to the Festival and two times to Cannes Classics. Through this documentary rich in sensibility and visual flair aided by stunning graphics, “Pino” Solanas evokes creation.

The history of the Argentine railways, from 1857 until the crisis of the current transport system. The closing of branches of the railway lines turned towns whose main source of work was the train into ghost towns. The privatization of the lines caused the dismissal of tens of thousands of workers as well as the deterioration of public service, causing in turn the increase of motor transport and the multiplication of automobile accidents.

The degraded socio-economic condition of Argentina leading to the December 2001 rebellions, and its consequent social chaos analyzed by focusing on real people from Buenos Aires poorest shantytowns, crumbling hospitals, and women middle class farmers fighting multi national banks that are shamelessly appropriating their farmlands. Written by Gonz30

Through a trip to the site Vaca Muerta, in Neuquen, the specialist Felix Herrero and research Maristella Svampa, revealing testimonies of villagers and technicians on the effects and results of the new process oil and unconventional gas are collected.

A Journey to the Fumigated Towns is the final episode made by Fernando Solanas in a series of 8 films dedicated to the Argentinian’s crisis in the 21st century. Based on testimonies, re-creations, archives and photos, this investigative documentary reveals not only the after-effects of the soya’s model and other GMO’s grain productions with agrochemicals, on the health of the Argentinian people, but also the global and environmental consequences.