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Our Disappeared

Fascinating historical clips mixed with personal interviews

By PEG ALOI | October 9, 2008

3.0 Stars

Between 1976 and 1983, some 30,000 people were kidnapped and killed by the Argentine military dictatorship. Filmmaker Juan Mandelbaum left Argentina for the US years ago, but a random Google search for the whereabouts of an old girlfriend reveals that she, too is one of the “desaparecidos.” In Nuestros desaparecidos, Mandelbaum returns to his homeland to explore this government-sanctioned murder, to try to find out what happened to Patricia, in the process meeting dozens of people whose relatives were taken and killed. Archival footage of protest marches portrays the passionate involvement of the Argentine citizens: their naive admiration of Castro, their betrayal at the hands of Perón, the army’s cold-blooded decimation of the leftist militant movement. The film mixes these fascinating historical clips with personal interviews, the people bemoaning their lost loved ones and cursing Argentina’s brutal legacy even as they remain optimistic about a better future. English + Spanish | 99 minutes | MFA: October 16, 18, 18, 26; November 1

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