Friday, 21.11.2025, 16:30 “El Juicio/ The Trial” (Argentina, 2023 - Spanish with English subtitles), ARGENTINA, ITALY, FRANCE AND NORWAY, 177 Min, Free Admission with Guest
In April 1985, nine high-ranking representatives of the Argentinian military dictatorship (1976 to 1983) were put on trial, on charges including unlawful detention, torture and murder. This documentary by filmmaker Ulises de la Orden makes use of the video footage from the courtroom to create a 177-minute-long documentary. The result is an „artful, spiralling montage“ (Berlinale) condensed out of more than 500 hours of material. It allows the witnesses to be heard and conveys the full gravity of crimes committed under Argentina’s dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983.
Sinopsis
1985, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The trial of the Military Juntas of the last dictatorship (1976/83), accused of crimes against humanity. As in Nuremberg after World War II, the trial is entirely recorded in U-matic tapes. For 90 days, the testimonies of the horror were heard and a final sentence: Never Again.
The defenders and the political and ideological positions of those who supported the dictatorship. In the voice of the victims, the stories of torture and pain. Life and death in the same room.
An archive of the past and a film that raises a starting point.
Director’s Notes
The 90 days that the trial lasted were entirely recorded by the public television channel with two cameras on U-matic cassettes. The search for and access to the trial archive, 530 hours of footage, began in 2013. Dreaming about a documentary film that narrates what happened there, and at the same time tells the story of the Argentine horror and its justice process.
It was not easy to find the material. At the public television channel, which was in charge of the recording, they denied me any kind of collaboration for fear of political reprisals. At the AGN (General Archive of the Argentine Nation), which has the material in custody, they suggested that in order to avoid inconveniences I should look for the material at the University of Salamanca (Spain), which also has a copy of the material in custody.
It seemed incredible. More than three decades after the trial, it still raised fears and reservations in small officials unable to make a decision and take the risks.
In 2019, after much walking, I learned, through my friends at the Luisa Hairebedian Foundation (https://verdadyjusticia.org.ar/) that the archival material, the 530 digitized hours, are in the custody of Memoria Abierta NGO (https://memoriaabierta.org.ar/).
We met with the Memoria Abierta team, agreed on the guidelines to work together and then, finally, we were ready to start visualizing the archive.
The stage of visualization, description and preparation of the archive for its use in the film lasted 9 months and was carried out by Alberto Ponce (editor), Gisela Peláez (assistant director and production manager) and myself. The material that we found had some important missing pieces and some tapes have deteriorated over time. For this reason we ventured to try to find the mythical VHS copy housed in the Norwegian Parliament.
The history of the Norwegian VHS copy deserves a separate story, but to summarize, in 1988, due to the concerns raised by the various military uprisings after the trial, the judges decided to make a domestic VHS cassette copy and take it out of the country. Of all the institutions consulted, it was the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation, based in Denmark, who connected with the Norwegian Parliament, in which archive the VHS cassettes currently reside. With patience and perseverance we managed to get in touch with the authorities of the parliament archive and they agreed to send a digital copy to us. In the VHS copy we found many fragments that are not available in the original copy in Argentina. The film uses fragments of both copies.
This finding motivated the incorporation of Dag Hoel (Dag Hoel Filmproduksjon, Norway) to the co-production, which at that time already had the invaluable participation of Alessandro Borrrelli (La Sarraz Pictures, Italy) and Richard Copans (Les films d'ici, France).
The in-depth analysis work carried out on both archives also highlighted the need for a new digitization of both the U-matic and VHS archives in Norway. Together with Memoria Abierta we developed a project, currently in progress, that coordinates efforts between the Federal Chamber in Argentina, the Parliament and the Norwegian National Library, with the financial support of the Ford Foundation, for the digitization and unification of a master copy of the Juntas Trial archive in 4K, with current processing standards, which will be available to the public through Memoria Abierta.
"El juicio” (The Trial) is the first cinematographic work that deals exhaustively with the archive of the Trial of the Juntas, the cornerstone of the process of justice for crimes against humanity in Argentina and it is an invaluable document for Humanity.
Biofilmography of Ulises de la Orden
Graduated in Film Directing at Universidad del Cine.
Professor of Film Directing at ENERC 2006 - 2023.
His academic education was completed by a vast work experience in the film industry in which he has been active since 1992, having participated in important productions in Argentina, Chile, Hungary, France, India, Hong Kong, China, Canada and England.
His films are Rio Arriba (2006), Tierra Adentro (2011), Desierto Verde (2013), Mujer Entera (2015), Chaco (2018), Nueva Mente (2019), Amanecer en mi Tierra (2019), Marea y viento (2020), Vilca, la magia del silencio (2021) and El juicio (2023).
About Polo Sur Cine
Our goal is to make visible stories that are not fully available to the general public in Argentina and the world, stories that move us and encourage us to engage in production, addressing the issues in all their dimensions and proposing points of view that broaden our vision.