Fattening my arsenal of the DVD collection, the latest addition is multiple awards winning Argentinian movie titled 'Blessed by Fire' or 'Iluminados por el Fuego'. I know Fuego means fire in Spanish as I learnt in Geography of Tierra del Fuego which is the southernmost tip of Southern America. Apparently, Magellan's visit to this part of the world was met with a hostile unwelcome welcome in the form of mammoth bonfires, hence the name 'Land of Fire'. Fascinated by its 22 nominations and wins in 14 of them, I grabbed a copy. As the spoken language was Spanish, all the wins were in unfamiliar Latin American Film festivals like in Havana, Argentina and Lima. I have never heard of Argentina having a film industry, what more awards! The closest I heard of performing arts and Argentina is Eva Peron and 'Don't Cry for me Argentina'!
'Blessed by fire' is an anti-war movie depicting the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by the soldiers of the Falkland (Malvinas for Argentinians) war in 1982.
The story starts with an ex-serviceman of the Falklands War, Vargas, almost 20 years after the battle, attempting suicide. His wife, calls upon his comrade in arms, fellow pawn (now a journalist), Esteban, to the hospital. In a series of flashbacks and present, the atrocities, cruelty and the torment of actually being on the battlefield is unfolded. The human fear, sufferings, torture amongst fellow human beings and the sad story behind every soldier is narrated. They lost the war, get words of encouragement of being great heroes that their motherland is proud of them from the Generals and was made to go back to suffer the agony of war as recurrent nightmares for them and their love ones for the rest of their remaining lives! The ex-soldier (Vargas) finally succumbs to his ailment after many days under ventilator and intensive care. The film ends with the journalist returning to Falklands to visit the fox-hole he and his comrades used to hide, just to find some artefacts they had suppressed for a time of reflection.
Personally, I found the movie worthy of praises but may not earth-shattering. We all have seen war movies with anti-war sentiments over and over again in many forms - Saving Private Ryan, Letters from Iwo Jima and the myriad of Anti Vietnam movies. So, it is nothing new, really. But, I suppose the jury did not see it that way. The movie people are mainly pacifist, and the fact that a first world country is depicted as an aggressor on Latin American soil just made them all excited. Unlike most war movie that shows unnecessary gore and death (as if war is without these), this show emphasises more on the human effect of war. I suppose that is what movie making is all about, not all pyrotechnics and stunts.
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