Synopsis

“Our Disappeared”/“Nuestros Desaparecidos” is director Juan Mandelbaum’s personal search for the souls of friends and loved ones who were caught in the vise of the military and “disappeared” in his native Argentina during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

After learning that Patricia, a long lost girlfriend, is among the desaparecidos, Mandelbaum returns to his native Argentina to find out what happened to her and others he knew who mysteriously vanished. As he revisits the dreams they shared for a revolution that would transform Argentina he also grieves the tragic losses and examines his own choices.

Through dramatic stories told by parents, siblings, friends and children of the disappeared, Mandelbaum shows what happens when brutal regimes attack the fabric of a country with great impunity, causing enormous suffering that lasts for generations. Using rare archival footage, Mandelbaum brings the energy and tension of the time and place to life.

‘Life Wins in the End’: An Update from Our Disappeared/Nuestros Desaparecidos. Juan Mandelbaum. Beyond the Box. September 21, 2012.

The Act of Memory. Juan Mandelbaum. ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America. Fall 2013.