Private Narratives and Infant Views: Iconizing 1970s Militancy in Contemporary Argentine Cinema

Abstract

This article analyses the connections between the subjective turn in the representation of militancy, iconicity, and historical examination in Infancia clandestina, a recent Argentine film that portrays the 1970s armed struggle through a child’s lens. Breaking with the leading interpretation that praises the movie because of its original exposition of left-leaning violence, I contend that this coming-of-age story fits within a version of militancy that originated in the mid-1990s and that has become quite common since the advent of the Kirchner administration in 2003. This particular version relies on a privatized and archaic image of activism that is at the core of the global iconization of 1970s militancy. An analysis of the filmic use of an infant perspective and of anime-style cartoons illuminates how contemporary Argentine cinema both registers and participates in this iconizing process.