Memoria del saqueo

When by the end of 2001 a crisis blows up in Argentina and massive protests erupt, the Argentine director Fernando Solanas wonders what has happened to Argentina. How is it possible that in such a rich country so many people are starving? He formulates the answer in ten chapters on the basis of archival footage that he interprets and comments on. The root of the problem lies in foreign debts that stem from colonial times and gave banks substantial influence on politics. Electoral fraud and privatisation subsequently led to the formation of a “mafiocracy” under President Menem, in which bribery and corruption were daily practices. The richest ten percent of the country then literally sold out the nation's public property to foreign companies. Despite the rich oil and gas fields, a large group of Argentines now lives in dire poverty, because prices just keep rising. Solanas concludes his political-historical reconstruction-cum-pamphlet in a hospital, where doctors are forced to stand by helplessly while very young patients succumb to undernourishment and treatable diseases.