Argentinian actor Ricardo Darín had never played a real person before Santiago Miter Argentina, 1985. But to be part of the historical drama about the true story of Argentina’s famous 1985 junta trial, Darín couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play the late chief prosecutor Julio Strassera – and also bring some of the meaning of Strassera’s real life. of humor to the role.

Argentina, 1985 follows Strassera and fellow prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, who together investigated and prosecuted former commanders for war crimes committed during the country’s deposed military dictatorship. In 1985, nine men were tried for the torture and murder of thousands of Argentine citizens who were punished as political dissidents during the seven-year “dirty war” of the 1970s. This landmark trial was the first major war crimes trial since the Nüremberg trials in Germany after World War II and is the only time in Argentina’s history that a democratic government has brought to justice a former dictatorial government.

During the trial, Strassera and Ocampo came under enormous pressure to stop their fight for justice, during which time they received daily threats. But even during such a stressful time, Strassera found a way to bring some humor into the situation.

“I’d like to share this anecdote that we found while researching Straserra,” Darín said during a Q&A at the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s Cinema Society event. “When Strassera worked in the prosecutor’s office, they constantly received threats and phone calls threatening them to try to stop the trials. Something really funny that I’d like to share is that he picked up the phone and said, “If it’s about the threats, please call tomorrow 7:30 to 8 a.m. and that’s when we’ll take care of you.'”

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Although the real Strassera died in 2015, understanding the man’s sense of humor gave Darín a certain levity to play with.

“During this research, we discovered that Strassera had this very unique sense of humor. like that’s not a respective thing – it’s actually a term of endearment, like “crazy cute” or something like that. The reason he had that nickname is because he had that sense of very particular humor. When we discovered that, it opened a window for us to access that humor and, again, give more layers to the character, and I think that worked wonderfully,” Darín said.

“It is very important to emphasize that in this case Santiago and I did not want to imitate a real historical figure, we did not want to copy anything. But what we did was find details and nuances that would help us create a more complex character. So we gave free rein to our imagination, and that’s how we were able to create, from reality and our imagination, a deeper and more complex character.

Argentina, 1985 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Main image: Santiago Miter and Ricardo Darín at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.