‘Under the Flags, the Sun,' About Paraguay's 35-Year Dictatorship, Acquired by Cinephil Ahead of Berlinale Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)
World sales outfit Cinephil has boarded 'Under the Flags, the Sun' by Paraguayan filmmaker Juanjo Pereira. The film is set to world premiere in Berlinale's Panorama strand as one of the few documentaries in this year's selection.
In 1989, the fall of Alfredo Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship in Paraguay marked the end of one of the world's longest authoritarian regimes, but also the abandonment of the audiovisual archives that had cemented its power. This footage, crafted to shape a national identity and celebrate the regime, was left to fade from memory.
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Decades later, a trove of unseen and long forgotten footage—as newsreels, public television broadcasts, propaganda films, and declassified documents—has been recovered from Paraguay and abroad, revealing the hidden mechanisms of power behind Stroessner's rule.
'The found Paraguayan footage reflects the appropriation of the past to indoctrinate, the construction of a national imaginary, and the cult of Stroessner,' according to a press statement.
Pereira comments: 'In primary and secondary school in Paraguay, they don't teach about that period or the many other dictatorships that occurred in the country. I made this documentary to discover how this period affected the formation of a society, my contemporaneity and how it has forged my thoughts and feelings. That is why I chose to investigate the different filmic representations that have taken place in Paraguay throughout the 20th century.'
'Juano Pereira's film is more than just a historical documentary,' Suzanne Nodale and Shoshi Korman, co-managing directors of Cinephil, state. 'It's an urgent examination of how media shapes power and collective memory. Through a creative use of archival material interwoven with a modern perspective, the film exposes mechanisms of control that still resonate today. It's a powerful work.'
'Under the Flags, the Sun' is produced by Ivana Urízar for Cine Mío, Paula Zyngierman and Leandro Listorti for MaravillaCine, Gabriela Sabaté for Sabaté Films, and Juanjo Pereira. It is co-produced by Bird Street Production and Lardux Films. Welt Film is the associate producer. Cinephil secured worldwide sales rights.
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