Our Disappeared

Asia Pacific Premiere

Lots of us furtively Google exes. But when Director Mandelbaum looked up his exgirlfriend Patricia,he was in for a shock.
This film documents his personal search for friends and loved ones who were caught in the vice of the military and “disappeared” in his native Argentina during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The film reflects on the political and personal contexts that led so many young people to fight for a more just Argentina.

After finding out that Patricia is a “desaparecido”, he returns to Argentina to find out what happened to her. As he revisits the
dreams they shared for a revolution that would transform Argentina, he grieves the tragic losses and examines his own choices.

He did not sign up with any of the radical groups at his university and left Argentina in 1977 at the height of the repression, to escape the pervasive climate of fear. Using extraordinary archival
footage, Mandelbaum brings the energy and tension of the time and place to life.

Thirty years after the military coup Mandelbaum explores what happens when brutal regimes attack the fabric of a country with great impunity, causing enormous suffering that lasts for generations. The pain that seemed so distant is still very much present.