Emma Thompson is returning to the big screen after a two-year absence, teaming up with Spy Kids star Antonio Banderas to take on the poignant theme of the “disappeared”, political dissidents kidnapped and murdered during Argentina’s last dictatorship.
Sporting a new short, dark hairdo for the film, the British actress, who has a two-year-old daughter by fellow actor Greg Wise, spoke about the importance of the project, Imagining Argentina.
“Violence by the state against the individual is the worst possible thing,” Emma told reporters, speaking in broken Spanish at a Buenos Aires news conference. “It is our responsibility to show it and discuss it to ensure it never happens again.”
In the film, set during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship that saw 30,000 leftists tortured and killed, the Oscar-winning actress plays a journalist kidnapped by the junta. “A disappeared person is not just one person, it is an entire universe,” says the Sense And Sensibility star. “An open wound.”
And Antonio, who stars as Emma’s left-wing playwright husband, feels the movie will serve as an important reminder to ensure history will not repeat itself. “This film is necessary because I think we have to remember these (atrocities) to avoid them happening ever again,” he says. “It is a political, human responsibility.”
Imagining Argentina, a British-Spanish co-production adapted from Lawrence Thornton’s novel of the same name, is slated for release sometime in 2003.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
