Bajo las banderas, el sol

The longest dictatorship in South America is also its least known. From 1954 to 1989 Alfredo Stroessner and the Red Party ruled Paraguay and took good care of any oppositional images: buried, erased, or vanished, they are nowhere to be found. Juanjo Pereira thus sets off on a journey through the archives of several countries in search of resistance footage, while also dealing with the triumphalist government propaganda left behind. As Mario Handler would also do in the face of scarcity, Pereira imposes some additional restrictions on himself: no voiceover, and therefore no safe place for the viewer. Instead we encounter a deep dive into the entrails of the found material. Through a process of subtle interference, the editing carves out a sense of distance through distortion, reversion and juxtaposition, while plunging us into an atmosphere where every image looks suspicious, every noise sounds muffled, all movement seems inert, and time stands still. The buzzing of flies is the sound of a rotten country, just as the colour red leaches out of the analogue videos to infect everything around it. Stroessner’s party remains in power in Paraguay to this day, and this film is an invitation to breathe in its poisoning fug. (Victor Guimarães)

In the presence of Juanjo Pereira.
 

Hlynur Pálmason: MÁLARINN (2013, K), VETRARBRÆÐUR (2017), HVÍTUR, HVÍTUR DAGUR (2019), VOLAÐA LAND (2022), HREIÐUR (2022, K), ÁSTIN SEM EFTIR ER (2025)