Spanish professor Erik Larson explains the underlying historical context of Argentine film Valentin during an International Cinema lecture.
PROVO, Utah (Sept. 23, 2014)—“The historical is always present,” said Spanish professor Erik Larson, and Alejandro Agresti’s 2002 film Valentin is no exception. Larson, who studies Argentine films, argues that while the film is about an eight-year-old boy who grows up in tenuous circumstances, a historical context underlines the film.
During an International Cinema Lecture, Larson explained that Valentin, the boy, grows up almost as an orphan as his parents split up when he was young and he lives with his sick grandmother. While living in difficult circumstances, the boy dreams of having a family.
“There is a component of nostalgia from the director,” Larson said. “Nostalgia for infancy, for when we were innocent, a time when dreams were still possible – when the future was still possible.”
Larson explained that this nostalgia leans into a historical reading of the movie. He gave the example of the priest’s sermon about Che Guevara, a revolutionary leader in Argentina during the 1960s. “In the movie, he is a man of ideals and dreams. Che had the ideal of the collective community,” Larson said. “The same thing is seen in Valentin – this ideal for community and family.”
He continued, “Why feel nostalgia for that time period?” Larson explained that the revolutionary movements in Southern America ended with violence and terror. “Maybe this movie is the chance to rescue this kind of nostalgia or the way to think of the world in other terms.”
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—Stephanie Bahr Bentley (B.A. English ’14)