Olvidados Review
By David Kempler
Olvidados is Forgettable
In the late 1970's, all of Latin America was consumed with extinguishing communism, in a program entitled Operation Condor. Carlos Bolado's "Olvidados", is the latest film to address what all of the governments did in the name of the operation. Their actions included innocent people disappearing, being tortured, and being executed.
"Olvidadados" (Forgotten) is a Bolivian production that starts off with a bang, because it includes newsreel footage of the actual participating miscreants who ran the show; Videla in Argentina, Pinochet in Chile, and Banzer in Bolivia. Unfortunately, after the initial onslaught of uncomfortable real images, the film degenerates into mediocrity when the dramatization begins.
General Mendieta (Damian Alcazar) is an elderly former general in failing health, who is doing very well monetarily, but not so well in the conscience department. He is haunted by his participation in the atrocities many years earlier. While out for a leisurely stroll he sees someone that immediately causes him great distress and terror. He collapses soon afterwards and he begins a descent into even worse health that requires a full-time nurse. The educated guess is that the man that he has seen is an ex-victim of his.
As Mendieta deteriorates, he contacts his son, Pablo (Bernardo Pena), who is living in New York City. Pablo's attempt to see his dad for perhaps the final time runs into a problem at the airport, where he is confronted by a man who has a long hatred of Pablo's father. Their interactions are symptomatic of what doesn't work with the film. The scenes feel forced and don't resonate. The topic of their confrontation is obviously a serious and dramatic one, but it just doesn't ring true.
The central problem with "Olvidados" is also that the entire production fails to rise to the level of seriousness and tension of the real-life events it is trying to depict. Yes, that is most definitely too much to expect, but when it never even sniffs the tension of the harsh realities, something is seriously flawed with the production. "Olvidados" is eminently forgettable.
