Escaping into Maturity

Euro 490

Film Paper #1

Escaping Into Maturity

Children tend to be the first ones affected during family struggles. We have all been through some sort of family struggle where we needed something to stir our creative minds else where and comfort us during these times. The truth is they all have to do with how we as humans see the rest of the world and how we deal with the struggles of it. In the case of Argentina in the 1970’s I will use the case of the 2002 film called Kamchatka to illustrate how certain mechanisms of escape were used to portray efforts their efforts to stay alive and getaway from the reality of tyranny and the dangers of war.

Before I continue with my examination of the themes in Kamchatka I believe it is vitally important that I briefly summarize the environment and conditions that took place in the 70’s and 80’s within Argentina. In the 1970’s Argentina was a very rough place to live. The amount of political chaos would have driven just about any right minded person out of the country if they could have afforded it. The government had major problems in achieving stability of the economy that resulted in an escalation of terrorism and a distraction to public order. A chief factor in the terrorism was the extremists form the Left and Right. The military later began to take over the power struggle by exercising a coup. They were successful and established a military dictatorship called “Junta”. The Argentine military seized political power by force during violent factional conflicts between far-left and far-right-wing supporters of the old government. The armed forces repressed opposition using harsh illegal measures, what we now know as the "Dirty War". It was said that thousands of dissidents were "disappeared". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_war) Many children were also disappeared if they were from families of the opposition party. The film Kamchatka was set in the time of the Dirty War. There was much fear and a considerable amount of reason for it.

In the film Kamchatka we learn quickly that the current situation isn’t well in the city where the family lives in. The narrative of the date and current events puts us in the middle of the military coup in Argentina. The children who were suddenly taken out of school were left in the dark about the current situation going on in the city. The parents who feel the political pressure from all around them decide to pull their children out of school and relocate to a remote location hoping to escape the reality of the military coup. This escape from reality is a theme that recurs throughout the storyline of this film. As the children scramble to understand why they are being taken away from their friends they begin to focus on what their parents have taught them and begin to use their imagination to escape the current living situation.

As the boy, who we later know as Harry, discovers the world of Harry Houdini we find a similar parallel of Houdini’s escape artistry and Harry’s reality escape. He enters this fantasy world continuing to try to perform the escapes Houdini has successfully preformed. Unfortunately we see Harry try and try again to only see his failed efforts. Coincidently as he fails time and time again the escape that his family is attempting begins to fail as well. This parallel has great significance because he later is able to accept his parents’ failed