Illuminated by Fire
by Jorge Vargas
In the year 1982, Argentina was thrown into a senseless war, fighting in a conflict that had not existed, losing a battle that should not have been fought. Argentina’s dictatorial right-wing military government, supported, for a while, by the United States as the empire fought against communism in the Cold War, decided that in order to keep the regime alive, a war against Great Britain was necessary. A war to bring the Falkland Islands, known in Spanish as las Islas Malvinas, into Argentine hands took place.
Argentine soldiers invaded the islands and, eventually, Margaret Thatcher’s military arrived to take the islands back. Argentina was succinctly wiped out, with some South American nations, such as Chile, aiding Great Britain, while the United States looked the other way, giving full support for Great Britain, ignoring its own “Monroe Doctrine” in which the U.S. swore to protect Latin America from European intervention. Clearly, U.S. promises were again broken.
Of course, not many know the story of this war, and few outside of Great Britain and Latin America know little more than that it took place. To Latin America, the war was another sign that we weren’t able to win against a European army, let alone that of the United States.
In early 2006, a film was released in the Spanish-speaking world entitled “Iluminados por el Fuego,” or, in English, “Illuminated by Fire.” Directed by Tristán Bauer, he movie begins in the present, with the death of the Esteban Leguizamón’s friend in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This then leads the Esteban to remember the events of the war almost 20 years before, and eventually, he goes back to the Falkland Islands to see if he can bring back further memories of the conflict while there. The mystery of this man’s recollections are enthralling, and a Third World army finds itself in ruins as it faces the wrath of the British armed forces, which are, obviously, far more advanced and, sadly, incredibly superior as a fighting machine.
The movie is not marked by vicious war scenes like the American film “Saving Private Ryan,’” a movie which also allows the audience to relive the war, though mostly by pasting up scene after scene of gore. “Iluminados” is the Latin version of “Saving,” however, in that it demonstrates to the world how Latin America, how Argentina, can look back at its own World War II, at the war that Argentina will likely never forget.
The movie does, of course, feature excellent battle scenes and very good cinematography, but its just as frequent to see scene after scene of the soldiers living the daily life as they attempt to hunt cattle for a meal, or as they play a game of soccer on the wet ground of those cold, southern islands.
The movie has been ignored in the United States and further still in Great Britain. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that, at one point of the movie, the director shows us clips of news coverage during the war, and we see British ships getting ready to attack, U.S. President Reagan smiling alongside British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as the war breaks out, and Margaret Thatcher sitting behind an artillery weapon, firing it out into her enemies. Or perhaps it has to do with the ending scene where the Esteban goes to the Falkland Islands and reads a sign mocking the Argentine soldiers, telling them that Argentines are welcome to the Falkland Islands so long as they agree to the fact that they were wrong and give up their claim.
Why does the Latin world sit back and watch a propaganda film from the U.S. such as ‘”Saving” while the Anglo nations completely ignore the Latin version of it, which, surprisingly, doesn’t have anywhere near as much propaganda as the former? Is it because the Latin film was able to admit the wrongfulness of Argentina’s government, whereas the U.S. film never stops to question the fact that, had the U.S. entered the war sooner, the war wouldn’t have lasted anywhere near as long?
Hollywood should learn the lesson of this film. It should learn that the public, be it Latin or Anglo, needs more films that deal with issues. We’re tired of “Legally Blonde’s” and “Saving Private Ryan’s” and most of the other fluff films that the multimillion-dollar US film industry sends our way. Ignorance is bliss, of course, but hypocrisy feeds off of ignorance, and government, especially that of stronger nations, is filled with hypocrisy.
“Illuminated by Fire” is an interesting film, filled
with truth, or, at least, the other side of the story, and no one who
lives in our multipolar world in this globalized era should go without
watching it.
