tingling in hindsight

Annabell 2022-10-25 22:57:27

History is an endless development, both for society as a whole and for every nuanced individual. In this regard, everyone seems to be just a drop in the ocean. Ordinary people often have three states in the face of the great achievement of "history": foresight, keeping up with trends, and knowing later. The Argentine film "Official Statement", through the story of a woman, shows the most fatal blow of heavy history to small people. This is not an awakening of thinking, but a powerlessness after being surrounded by a sense of fate. Through the pursuit of the identity of her adopted daughter by the female history teacher Alicia, the film felt a great panic about the history and reality she was trapped in. At the same time, the independent consciousness of women also awakened with the intensification of this change. In the end, she gave up the family that looked happy to outsiders, and in the end, it was impossible for people to see whether this was lucky or unfortunate for Alicia.
Alicia is a "lunderer" in history. Although she is a rigorous history teacher, she lacks the most real understanding of the world she is really in. On the one hand, as the wife of a successful husband, her presence in the family is only an appendage to the man. Her husband would never and need not ask her about her work at school. On the contrary, Alicia had to hear complaints from her husband Robert about company affairs every day; on the other hand, her environment began to make her uneasy, In particular, the information she got from her friends made her endlessly pursue the identity of her adopted daughter. So her emancipation of her own mind and her longing for what she wants to be true are not without reason. All of this seems to have been prepared for Alicia in the dark: her family seems to be happy on the surface. Covering up the incomparably empty interior made her restless, her students' torture of history also began to shake her traditional cognition, and the anxiety and complaints of her friends and family members about this society made her feel the same... So the final outburst is her departure, as her daughter sings at the end: "Because I know what to do next!"
The first scene at the beginning of the film is an assembly at Alicia's school, where teachers and students stand together to sing the Argentine national anthem. The first shot of the scene is a close-up of several loudspeakers playing the national anthem at the school. The trumpet is actually the mouthpiece of the ruling class, although they sing about the motherland, but as an ideological and ideological existence, all these are the education of the rulers for the ruled. In this way, those big speakers are a little chilling. The teaching life of the school is a powerful medicine for Alicia to awaken her own independent consciousness, especially the students' understanding of reality and doubts about history textbooks, especially the sentence: "History is written by assassins. ." Completely defeated the last line of defense of the old consciousness in Alicia's mind. All this subverts Alicia, who has always been a regular history teacher. However, it was this subversion that created her own final awakening, so that she would gladly give the student who contradicted her an A grade. It can be seen from this that the environment of the school in the film can be regarded as a powerful catalyst for Alicia's awakening of her own independent consciousness and the challenge and resistance to the inherent ideology. It is this fierce confrontation that generates the force that can sail forward.
On the other hand, the film extends from Alicia's teaching job at school to her family life. When the film expresses her family life, the emphasis is on expressing her subtle emotions towards her children and her husband. There is a song that runs through the film, which is sung repeatedly by her adopted daughter Gabby: "In the forgotten land, I walked three steps and got lost." The lyrics of this song are completely depicting the heroine Ai Changes in Licy's thoughts and emotions. When describing family life, there is such a scene that profoundly alludes to the idea expressed in the film, that is, at Gabby's birthday party, Gabby, who gently comforts the doll, is frightened and screamed by the violent games of the boys. Just like boys' games are always unacceptable to girls, because men always represent violence and war, but women cannot represent the wisdom of Athena, but become an appendage of male-dominated ideology. This point actually deeply hurt Alicia's gradually awakening self. At the end of the film, Robert violently confronted Alicia because she was worried that Alicia would return Gabby to her relatives. At this point, Alicia was once again hit by such a reality, so she chose the last sentence of the lyrics of the song Gabby sang: "Because I know what to do next..."
All the elements in the film are actually paving the way for Alicia's self-awakening and the generation of a sense of resistance to the existing ideology, and finally completes her own new choice. For example, in the film, Alicia is also designed to go to the church to do confession. However, with such a simple confession, her own rising independent consciousness could not control the collision with the priest, and even showed her doubts about God. In fact, God-like belief is just a kind of inner self-comfort, out of avoidance of reality and forgetting of the past. Awakened people are suffering, and their suffering lies in the fact that they have broken away from the attachment of God-like beliefs, and have returned to their truest feelings. And what Alicia does to history, to the inherent ideology of this country, to the brilliance of disguising God, it is all an afterthought, and this is painful. She was lucky though, because she was a forerunner of people like her husband, Robert, who still couldn't help themselves. Because, although history makes everyone feel destined, it still silently chooses some people to open up the future. I think Alicia is one of those ordinary and special people who are pioneering the future.

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Extended Reading

The Official Story quotes

  • Roberto: Where's Gaby?

    Alicia: Horrible, isn't it?

    Roberto: What's horrible?

    Alicia: Not knowing where your daughter is!

  • Benitez: [to Alicia in Classroom] Literature and History always meet.