Funny Dirty Little War

Funny Dirty Little War
DVD cover
Directed by	Héctor Olivera
Produced by	Fernando Ayala Luis O. Repetto
Written by	Screenplay: Héctor Olivera Roberto Cossa Story: Osvaldo Soriano
Starring	Federico Luppi Héctor Bidonde Víctor Laplace
Music by	Óscar Cardozo Ocampo
Cinematography	Leonardo Rodríguez Solís
Editing by	Eduardo López
Distributed by	Cinevista Production Company: Aries Cinematográfica
Release date(s)	Argentina: September 22, 1983 Canada: September 9, 1984 United States: March 30, 1985
Running time	80 minutes
Country	Argentina
Language	Spanish

Funny Dirty Little War (Spanish: No habrá más penas ni olvido) (1983) is an Argentine film. The movie is directed by Héctor Olivera, and the screenplay was written by Olivera and Roberto Cossa, based on a novel of the same name written by Osvaldo Soriano. The motion picture was produced by Fernando Ayala and Luis O. Repetto; and features Federico Luppi, Héctor Bidonde, Víctor Laplace, among others.^[1] The events of the comedy-drama take place one day in 1974.

Plot

Héctor Suprino is the local Peronist political boss in the small countryside village of Colonia Vela. He plots with the county mayor Guglielmini and union leader Reinaldo to get the deputy mayor Ignacio Fuentes out of power, despite Fuentes being an avid peronist and having once worked under Juan Domingo Perón himself.

Fuentes is told that he has to fire his assistant Mateo because of his Marxist sympathies. Yet, Fuentes, despite disagreeing with Marxist ideals himself, refuses because of his absolute stance against caving in to political pressure. This evokes a harsh response from Suprino, who has the police chief intervene. Fuentes, rather than cave in to pressure, arms himself and then barricades himself in the town hall along with his allies and friends; Mateo, Corporal García, Juan, Rodrigo, Moyito and Crazy Ceres.

Suprino orders police intervention, which leads to a massive stand-off between the local police force and Fuentes' men. The counter-Fuentes operation, led by Chief Llanos and Sub-Chief Rossi, initially only consists of attempting to threaten Fuentes into surrendering but soon evolves into a real shootout when members of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, led by Rogelio Almeido, show up and intervene.

During the shootout with the AAA, Moyito is killed and several police officers are wounded, which leads to a temporary ceasefire and a deadlock. Juan sneaks out through the back to look for the local crop duster pilot, Cerviño, in order to convince him to help Fuentes by conducting an aerial attack as a distraction so he can sneak more ammo and explosives round the back.

As night falls, a group of local communist guerrilla youths led by Matilda Gómez gather in an abandoned warehouse and decide to use the conflict as a means to start a civil war and take over the government to turn the country to marxism. They start out by kidnapping Chief Llanos and hold him for a ransom of several tons of explosives and weaponry. Not wanting to give more resources to the communists, Guglielmini abandons Llanos and declares Rossi the new police chief.

Rossi leads a new attack on Fuentes, this time using bulldozers as cover to advance on the town hall. Rodrigo and Crazy Ceres are killed during this attack and Fuentes, García and Mateo are barely saved because Cerviño arrives in the nick of time and sprays pesticides all over the police with his plane, causing them to temporarily disperse.

The guerrilla attacks the local union with a pipe bomb, killing Reinaldo, which prompts the AAA agents to abandon the fight against Fuentes and instead attempt to kill the guerrilla troopers. Famed local radicalist former senator Prudencio Gúzman attempts to negotiate with the communists for Llanos' release, but the peace talks fall through and Llanos is ultimately executed.

The police regroup again and prepare for a third attack. In order to buy some time and distract Rossi, Mateo turns himself in while Fuentes, García and Juan prepare a bomb with the explosives the latter had previously brought in. The police attack continues and when they enter the town hall, the bomb goes off, killing several police officers and giving Fuentes, García and Juan enough time to escape round the back. In retaliation for the bomb, Almeido executes Mateo.

While escaping, Fuentes and García are captured and taken to a local school to be tortured and imprisoned. Juan escapes and is eventually found by the guerrilas, who promise to help free Fuentes and García if Juan later shows them where he keeps his explosives stash.

Juan convinces Cerviño to cause one more diversion with his plane, this time dropping manure on the police and while the police are distracted, Juan and Matilda bust García free. However, due to AAA reinforcments, Juan and Matilda are forced to escape with García alone...leaving Fuentes behind. The AAA and the communists face off in a mass shootout inside the school, which ends with most people on both sides dead.

Cerviño and his plane are followed by one of the few surviving AAA members, who shoots him when he lands. While fleeing from the shootout at the school, Matilda and the other three surviving guerrillas get blown up by Almeido, who finishes them off in a suicide bombing.

Suprino severely beats Fuentes and then Guglielmini tries to talk him into taking the blame for the whole ordeal. When he refuses, Guglielmini and Suprino leave while Rossi executes Fuentes. While leaving town, Suprino realizes Guglielmini plans to frame him for the whole incident and runs him over with his truck before escaping the country.

When morning finally dawns, García and Juan go to Cerviño's house, where they find him wounded but still alive. They tell him that Fuentes won the battle to comfort him and then Cerviño makes them promise to tell Perón about him if he ever returns, after which he dies. After burying Cerviño, Juan and García begin to head into the countryside while discussing the many ways they could convince Perón to return. The song "Mie Buenos Aires Querido" begins to play as the credits start rolling.

Cast

• Federico Luppi as Ignacio Fuentes
• Miguel Ángel Solá as Juan
• Julio de Grazia as Corporal Garcia
• Ulises Dumont as Cerviño
• Lautaro Murúa as Mayor Guglielmini
• Héctor Bidonde as Suprino
• Rodolfo Ranni as Police Chief Llanos
• Raul Rizzo as Sub-Chief Rossi
• Luis Martínez Rusconi as Rogelio Almeido
• Emilio Vidal as Reinaldo
• Victor Laplace as Prudencio Gúzman
• Alicia Baistrocchi as Matilda Gómez
• José María Lopez as Mateo
• Arturo Maly as Toto
• Graciela Dufau as Mrs. Fuentes

Background

Basis of film

Main article: Montoneros

The film is based on a real political events that took place in Argentina in the mid 1970s. The film depicts, sub silentio, the struggle between the Montoneros political movement and the right-wing Peronist forces.

The Montonero Peronist Movement (Spanish: Movimiento Peronista Montonero) was an Argentine left-wing Peronist guerrilla group, active during the 1970s. Its motto was venceremos ("we will conquer").

After Juan Perón's return from 20 years of exile and the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing Peronism, the Montoneros were expelled from the Justicialist party in May 1974 by Perón. The group was almost completely dismantled in 1977, during Jorge Rafael Videla's dictatorship.

Distribution

Funny Dirty Little War first opened in Argentina on September 22, 1983.

The motion picture has also been featured at various film festivals including the Toronto Film Festival; the Berlin International Film Festival; the Cognac Festival du Film Policier, Cognac, France; and the New York New Directors/New Films Festival, New York City; and others.

Critical reception

Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, complimented both the acting, pacing, and Héctor Olivera's directorial style, and wrote, "The film has also been so cannily paced - and is so well acted - that there's never much time to consider larger meanings while the mayhem is going on. Though Funny Dirty Little War ends bleakly, the existence of the film itself - the fact that it could be made at all, and with such style - is ultimately invigorating."^[2]

Awards

Wins

• Berlin International Film Festival: Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d'Art et Essai Juries (C.I.C.A.E.) Award; International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize; Silver Berlin Bear, Special Jury Prize; 1984.^[3]
• Cognac Festival du Film Policier: Grand Prix; 1985.

Nominated

• Berlin International Film Festival: Golden Berlin Bear; 1984.

References

1. ^ No habrá más penas ni olvido at the Internet Movie Database.
2. ^ Canby, Vincent. The New York Times, film review, March 30, 1985. Last accessed: January 15, 2008.
3. ^ "Berlinale: 1984 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1984/03_preistr_ger_1984/03_Preistraeger_1984.html. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 

External links

• No habrá más penas ni olvido at the Internet Movie Database
• No habrá más penas ni olvido at the cinenacional.com (Spanish)