The world is huge with nearly 250 countries, states with full or partial UN recognition, and territories all combined. As a result, people often are woefully uninformed about countries outside of their own. In Canada, we joke about how little most Americans know about even the basics of our geography. But, while Canada itself is vast, our population is only about equal to their most populous state (California). Unless their field/interest is global politics or something similar, most people are not paying attention to what’s happening worldwide. Most people are only aware of the loud global politics, the stories that are getting enough coverage to be mainstream. It’s why, regardless of location, many have a decent grasp on US politics, are aware of Brexit, understand the term, and now if you combine something else with ‘exit,’ they get the reference. There’s a good chance audiences watching Juanjo Pereira’s “Under the Flags, the Sun,” may be unfamiliar with the events the archival footage documentary uses, which is supported by the opening reels that speak of Paraguay as a mysterious place. Especially as the film is created using archival footage and documents that had formally been classified surrounding the years of the country during the longest dictatorship in South America. And further with the mystery quality, much of the films from this period have not been preserved, leading Pereira to utilize not only footage from Paraguay itself, but its dictator, President Alfredo Stroessner, global trips abroad, which further help illustrate the isolationist image and contrast between perception and reality.
The film leans into the grain and distortion of some of the clips, further distorting them at the ends, which helps emphasize what you’ve already seen and the idea that the film is a look into the country we were not supposed to see. The use of juxtaposition is strong, especially the sequence after it did a big set up about how they were building a dam between Paraguay and Brazil, with limited effects on the environment. It then follows that up saying how people were flooded and animals were displaced. But then as a very propaganda-y song praising Alfredo Stroessner plays, it shows the grimy reality of the dam build.
As previously mentioned, despite a later reveal in the documentary that Stroessner rarely left the country, the film gets a lot from this footage, particularly you get a lot in contrast from how we see him received in the film in the reel on his U.S. trip vs when he arrives in Europe many years later. The U.S. trip happened in the late 60s, at this point one should have reasonably presumed he was likely a dictator as there had not been a free election since he took the presidency, but the reel plays as propaganda for Stroessner and his party. However, during the later European trip, you see protesters waiting outside.
The film makes you want to look into the details of things it brings up, it does not provide all the answers, but rather a starting point. It asks you to dive in and do more to become engaged. Particularly, the ending. While Alfredo Stroessner is deposed, his legacy lives on in the people disappeared and the lack of answers they still have. The film’s ending asks you to stay engaged, because while the country is longer a dictatorship, Paraguay has still been governed almost continuously by the same party as Stroessner to this day (and only a few years back they tried to remove the safeguards put in place after Stroessner keeping Presidents to one term).
Cinaphil acquired the worldwide sales rights to “Under the Flags, the Sun,” ahead of its World Premiere at the 75th annual Berlin International Film Festival.
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