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Buenos Aires Dreaming: Chronopolitics, Memory And Dystopia In La Sonámbula, Mariano Paz

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

The Argentine film La Sonámbula (dir. Fernando Spiner, 1998) is one of the most renowned examples of local science fiction cinema. The film portrays a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian Argentina in the year 2010 (the near future at the time of the film’s release). Since this dystopian scenario never materialized, it might be assumed the concerns and anxieties about Argentine politics that the film conveys might have been exaggerated or unfounded. Drawing on the concept of chronopolitcs, as defined by Paul Virilio, and on the theoretical framework proposed by Paul Ricoeur related to the study of memory and forgetting, this paper discusses …