07/04/2009

Summer 1978: the World Cup is being held in Argentina. Less than a kilometre from the Estadio Monumental, General Videla’s men are torturing and killing dissidents at the ESMA military school. The country is celebrating and the entire world ignores the carnage taking place in the country: from 1976-83 there would be over 30,000 desaparecidos, one million exiles, 9,000 political prisoners and 15,000 gunned down on the streets.

With a sure hand, Stefano Incerti unites genre and political cinema, in Complici del Silenzio [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Accomplices of Silence”), to depict the horrendous fracture in Argentine society that still has not been healed. He does so through the eyes of an Italian sports journalist attending the World Cup, who falls in love with a woman who is part of a secret group that opposes the dictatorship.

Young reporter Maurizio (Alessio Boni, from Marco Tullio Giordana’s The Best of Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Once You’re Born, You Can No Longer Hide [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marco Tullio Giordana
interview: Riccardo Tozzi
film profile], and Sanguepazzo [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) becomes accomplice to Ana (Italian-Argentinean actress Florencia Raggi in a strong performance) and follows his destiny bravely.

Distancing himself from films such as Hector Olivera’s The Night of the Pencils (1986), Marco Bechis’ Garage Olimpo(1999) and Sons and Daughters (2001), and more recently Israel Adrian Caetano’s Buenos Aires, 1977 (2006), Incerti chose romanticism and heroism for this co-production between Massimo Vigliar’s Surf Film (Italy), Duque Film (Spain) and Malkina (Argentina), in collaboration with Sky Cinema, which covered 10% of the overall budget through pre-sales.

"I told a love story that becomes a thriller in the hopes of reaching a wide audience, despite the difficult subject,” said the director of his sixth film. Incerti’s debut feature, Il verificatore (1995), won awards at the Venice Film Festival, as well as a David di Donatello and Golden Globe.

Complici del Silenzio will be released domestically on April 17 on 50 screens by Ennio De Dominicis’ MediaPlex, through Circuito Cinema. It comes out in Argentina in June.

(Translated from Italian)