Memory ExercisesEjercicios de memoria

Synopsis

Agustín Goiburú was one of the strongest and most radical dissidents under the long-lasting, right-wing dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay. He went into exile in neighbouring Argentina and was 'disappeared' from his home near the Parana River, the border between the two countries, in 1976. The river plays a major role in Paz Encina's haunting film, an imaginative tribute to Goiburú's life, in which she deftly combines footage of furnished but empty rooms resembling still lifes, archival materials and the memories of Goiburú's children retold through the words and imagery of an even younger generation. This juxtaposition of generational voices and of fact and fiction evokes the lost lives of political opponents creating a wider examination of the impact the regime's terror had on the population at the time, repercussions of which still echo in the present day.