Bajo las banderas, el sol
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An archival excavation of Paraguay’s dictatorship, one of modern history’s longest, reveals how authoritarian control was built and how its ghost still haunts the present.
Through rare and meticulously assembled archival footage, Juanjo Pereira reconstructs Paraguay’s 35-year-long dictatorship under Alfredo Stroessner, which began with a military coup in 1954 and ended with his overthrow in 1989. The film shows how state power was consolidated through media control, constitutional manipulation and suppression of all dissent. With only 120 hours of footage surviving from this era, Pereira draws on a mosaic of international sources to reveal the geopolitical structures that upheld the regime. Propaganda footage is interwoven with foreign news broadcasts, the fragments coalescing to reflect on national identity, memory and authoritarian legacy in a nation still ruled by the regime’s descendants. While grounded in the past, the film resonates into the present, illuminating strategies of authoritarian control still in place. A haunting excavation of a past largely forgotten, the issues it raises are all too familiar.
Through rare and meticulously assembled archival footage, Juanjo Pereira reconstructs Paraguay’s 35-year-long dictatorship under Alfredo Stroessner, which began with a military coup in 1954 and ended with his overthrow in 1989. The film shows how state power was consolidated through media control, constitutional manipulation and suppression of all dissent. With only 120 hours of footage surviving from this era, Pereira draws on a mosaic of international sources to reveal the geopolitical structures that upheld the regime. Propaganda footage is interwoven with foreign news broadcasts, the fragments coalescing to reflect on national identity, memory and authoritarian legacy in a nation still ruled by the regime’s descendants. While grounded in the past, the film resonates into the present, illuminating strategies of authoritarian control still in place. A haunting excavation of a past largely forgotten, the issues it raises are all too familiar.
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Strands
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Topics
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Premiere statusUK premiere
Film details
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Director(s)Juanjo Pereira
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Country(s)Paraguay, Argentina, USA, Germany, France
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Year2025
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Duration90 mins
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Executive producer(s)James Costa
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Producer(s)Juanjo Pereira, Ivana Urizar, Gabriela Sabaté, Paula Zyngierman, Leandro Listorti
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CinematographyFrancisco Bouzas
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EditingManuel Embalse
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SoundJulián Galay
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Language(s)Guarani, Spanish, German, French, English, Portuguese
