Noting that ‘Glaxo,’ from São Paulo-based RT Features and Rei Pictures in Buenos Aires, is set entirely in Argentina but shot in Brazil, Naishtat laments: Argentina is 'a country with a great filmmaking tradition and it is now in very serious danger' “At what precise moment had Peru fucked itself up?” Nobel Prize winning author Mario Vargas Llosa famously asks at the beginning of “Conversation at The Cathedral.” In “Glaxo,” one of the most awaited of Latin American films this year, director Benjamín Naishtat charts what he describes as the whole of Argentina’s loss of innocence, which again has its origins in 1950s dictatorship and is equally pervasive. After the lighter turn of co-directing “Puán,” a “deliciously droll” makeover movie, said Variety, in “Glaxo,” which world premieres in Toronto’s Special Presentations, Naishtat returns to the disturbing collective psychology portrait of “Rojo,” charting the impunity of power — a cop, and the Glaxo corporation — and a tale of betrayals in its central coming of age section. Set along three timelines — Florida, outside Buenos Aires, on June 6, 1956, and then Chivilcoy, a town in the sticks also outside the Argentine capital one year later and then in 1984.
In the first, with Argentina under military dictatorship, based on historical facts depicted by Argentine writer Roberto Walsh in a trailblazing example of a non-fiction novel — police commissioner Folcada arrests 12 men listening to a boxing match, and then is leaned on by his boss to make an example of them. One year later, now a civilian and a wealthy ranch owner, Folcada has moved to Chivilcoy with his stunning wife, Negra Morcada (Lali Espósito, notable), dazzling four teen friends — Miguelito, Verdemann, “Bicho” and Lucio. In fact it’s the story of multiple endemic betrayals driven by the exercise of unaccountable power and the misjudgment of adolescence, under the weight of which four teens’ seemingly “Stand by Me” friendship unravels.
If “Rojo” was a “witheringly provocative examination of temporary moral eclipse becoming permanent moral apocalypse,” as Variety noted, “Glaxo” delivers a broader historical take on the same Argentinean dark ages. It delivers a pedigree producer package as a production of Brazil’s RT Features (“Paper Tiger,” “I’m Still Here”), produced by Argentina’s Rei Pictures (“Zama,” “The Settlers”). The film is inspired by novel “Glaxo,” from the film’s co-writer, Hernán Ronsino, which was partly inspired in turn by Walsh’s “Operation Masacre.” This deep concern for heritage – historical, literary, cinematographic – is one of the film’s sources of emotion.
Variety talked to Naishtat before the Toronto world premiere of “Glaxo,” after which the film segues for its European bow in main competition at San Sebastián. At the beginning of the “Conversation in The Cathedral,” Mario Vargas Llosa famously asks: “At what precise moment had Peru fucked itself up?” It seems that to a certain extent Hernán Ronsino and you in “Glaxo” are asking the same question about Argentina. Also Miguelito, the narrator, says “This is the story of a betrayal.
It seems to me that this is the story of many betrayals…. Benjamin Naishtat: I think that’s a very good analysis of the film, and basically this reading is obviously connected to Hernán Ronsino’s novel. When I read the novel for the first time, two things struck me.
First, its very austere style, almost like an American police crime novel, but also closely related to Argentine writer Rodolfo Walsh, the author of “Operation Massacre,” a book that has a strong connection to “Glaxo.” The film “Glaxo· also has a string connection to “Operation Massacre,” an underground film from 1973 by Jorge Cedrón, a filmmaker who isn’t very well known but who is very important in the mysterious history of Argentine cinema. I wanted to mention that because it’s important. But going back to your point, yes, I think it really is an open question for the audience.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
