Cinema as decolonization, not spectacle
Fernando 'Pino' Solanas, o cineasta e ativista argentino que transformou o cinema em arma de resistência política, morreu em Paris aos 84 anos em consequência da COVID-19, enquanto servia como embaixador da Argentina na UNESCO. Sua trajetória atravessou sete décadas de criação cinematográfica, militância política e pensamento anticolonial, deixando uma marca indelével na história cultural da América Latina. Com ele se vai uma das vozes mais corajosas do chamado Terceiro Cinema — aquele que recusava o espetáculo e escolhia a consciência.
- Solanas contraiu a COVID-19 em meados de outubro em Paris e, após anunciar publicamente sua hospitalização, seu último sinal de vida foi uma mensagem dizendo que sua condição era delicada, mas que resistia.
- Sua morte enquanto exercia funções diplomáticas transformou a perda pessoal em luto institucional, com o Ministério das Relações Exteriores da Argentina destacando seu compromisso ético até o fim.
- Décadas antes, seu documentário 'La Hora de los Hornos' circulava clandestinamente sob a ditadura militar — um ato de resistência que redefiniu o que o cinema poderia ser e a quem poderia servir.
- Sua vida pública nunca se limitou às telas: foi senador, deputado, candidato à presidência e, semanas antes de morrer, reuniu-se com o Papa Francisco para discutir mudanças climáticas e os direitos da Terra.
- A onda de homenagens que se seguiu à sua morte revelou o quanto sua obra permanece viva — não apenas como legado artístico, mas como convite permanente à recusa da injustiça.
Fernando 'Pino' Solanas morreu em Paris no dia 7 de novembro, aos 84 anos, vítima de complicações da COVID-19. Ele havia anunciado sua internação em 16 de outubro, após contrair o vírus na capital francesa, onde atuava como embaixador da Argentina junto à UNESCO. Cinco dias depois, publicou uma mensagem dizendo que sua condição era delicada, mas que resistia. Essa foi sua última comunicação pública. Sua esposa, Ángela Correa, também contraiu o vírus, mas se recuperou.
Nascido em Buenos Aires em 1936, Solanas entrou para o cinema em 1962, mas foi com 'La Hora de los Hornos' — documentário de mais de quatro horas codirigido com Octavio Getino em 1967 — que se tornou uma figura histórica. O filme circulou de forma clandestina durante a ditadura militar argentina, tornando-se símbolo de um cinema que recusava o entretenimento e abraçava a transformação. Junto a Getino, Solanas também assinou o manifesto 'Por um Terceiro Cinema', texto fundador que propunha uma cinematografia comprometida com as lutas antiimperialistas do Sul Global.
Sua filmografia acumulou reconhecimentos internacionais: 'El exilio de Gardel (Tangos)' venceu em Veneza, 'Sur' lhe rendeu o prêmio de melhor diretor em Cannes, e 'Memoria del saqueo' foi exibido em Berlim, onde recebeu um Urso de Ouro honorário. Mas Solanas nunca se contentou apenas com o cinema. Eleito senador em 1992, foi também deputado, candidato à presidência em 2007 e, em 2019, integrou a coalizão que levou Alberto Fernández à presidência.
Sua voz política permaneceu incisiva até o fim. Em 2018, durante o debate sobre a legalização do aborto no Senado, condenou a hipocrisia de uma classe dirigente que protegia a si mesma enquanto deixava mulheres pobres à própria sorte. Dirigindo-se às jovens que ocupavam as ruas, disse: 'Vocês elevaram a honra e a dignidade das mulheres argentinas.' Em outubro de 2019, semanas antes de ser hospitalizado, encontrou-se com o Papa Francisco no Vaticano para discutir projetos sobre clima e os direitos da natureza — um de seus últimos atos públicos. Partiu deixando uma obra que provou ser possível fazer cinema belo e perigoso ao mesmo tempo: perigoso para o poder, libertador para quem assistia.
Fernando 'Pino' Solanas, the Argentine filmmaker and politician who spent seven decades making cinema into an instrument of political resistance, died in Paris on November 7 at the age of 84. He had been hospitalized with COVID-19, which he announced on October 16 after contracting the virus in the French capital, where he was serving as Argentina's ambassador to UNESCO. Five days into his hospital stay, he posted that his condition was delicate but that he was holding on. That message was his last.
Argentina's Foreign Ministry confirmed his death in a statement that emphasized he had died while fulfilling his duties as ambassador. The ministry added that he would be remembered for his art, his political commitment, and an ethics always directed toward building a better country. His wife, Ángela Correa, had also contracted the virus but recovered.
Solanas was born in Buenos Aires on February 16, 1936, and entered cinema in 1962 with a short film called "Seguir andando." But it was "La Hora de los Hornos," a four-hour-plus documentary he co-directed with Octavio Getino in 1967, that would define his place in film history. The work became a manifesto of politically engaged cinema—a direct challenge to the commercial, U.S.-dominated film language of the era. It was also an act of resistance against Argentina's military dictatorship. The film circulated underground, screened in secret, becoming a symbol of what cinema could be when it refused to be entertainment and became instead a tool for consciousness and change.
With Getino, Solanas co-authored "Toward a Third Cinema," a foundational text of Latin American film theory that rejected both commercial Hollywood cinema and the European art film tradition. The manifesto argued that Third Cinema belonged to the anti-imperialist struggles of the Global South, that it was the greatest cultural and artistic expression of the age, and that it offered each people the possibility of building a liberated identity. This was not film as spectacle. This was film as decolonization.
His other works carried the same weight. "Perón: Actualización política y doctrinaria para la toma del poder" was an interview with Juan Domingo Perón that became a revered document among young Peronists. "El exilio de Gardel (Tangos)," made in 1985, won the Venice Film Festival. "Sur," released in 1988, earned him the best director prize at Cannes. In 2004, his documentary "Memoria del saqueo"—an examination of Argentina's social and economic devastation—played at Berlin, where he received an honorary Golden Bear in recognition of his career.
But Solanas was never only a filmmaker. In 1992, he was elected senator from Buenos Aires. A year later, he became a deputy for the Frente Grande. In 2007, he ran for president on the Proyecto Sur ticket, a progressive, environmentalist, center-left movement allied with the Authentic Socialist Party. In June 2019, he joined the Frente de Todos coalition and endorsed Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández for the presidency.
His political voice remained sharp and uncompromising. In 2018, as a senator, he spoke during a debate on abortion legislation that ultimately failed. He condemned the hypocrisy of a ruling class that could access safe abortions while leaving poor women to face infection or death. He addressed the young women who had mobilized in the streets: "You have elevated the honor and dignity of Argentine women. If it doesn't pass this year, we'll push next year. And if not next year, the year after. No one will stop the wave of your generation."
In early October, just weeks before his hospitalization, Solanas met with Pope Francis at the Vatican to discuss projects addressing climate change and the rights of Mother Earth. It was one of his final public acts. His death prompted an outpouring of tributes from political and cultural circles, many recalling not just his films but his refusal to separate art from the struggle for justice. He left behind a body of work that proved cinema could be both beautiful and dangerous—dangerous to power, that is, and liberating to those who watched.
Citas Notables
You have elevated the honor and dignity of Argentine women. If it doesn't pass this year, we'll push next year. And if not next year, the year after. No one will stop the wave of your generation.— Solanas, speaking as senator during 2018 abortion debate
Third Cinema recognizes in the anti-imperialist struggle the greatest cultural, scientific and artistic expression of our time, the great possibility of each people building a liberated identity.— Solanas and Octavio Getino, 'Toward a Third Cinema' manifesto
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
What made Solanas different from other filmmakers working in Argentina during the dictatorship?
He refused the idea that cinema should be separate from politics. Most filmmakers were making art; Solanas was making weapons. "La Hora de los Hornos" wasn't meant to be watched in theaters. It was meant to be smuggled, screened in living rooms, to wake people up.
And the Third Cinema manifesto—was that theory or practice?
It was both. He and Getino were describing what they were already doing. They were saying: there's Hollywood cinema, there's European art cinema, and then there's us. Cinema made by and for people fighting imperialism. It wasn't abstract.
He lived a long life. Did his politics change over time?
He evolved, but the core never shifted. He went from underground filmmaker to senator to ambassador. But even as a senator in 2018, he was still fighting—still angry about inequality, still speaking for the voiceless. The form changed; the commitment didn't.
What does it mean that he died as an ambassador?
It's complicated. He'd achieved a kind of legitimacy, a seat at official tables. But he was still himself—still meeting with the Pope about climate justice, still pushing the same vision. He never became establishment.
Do you think his films still matter now?
They matter differently. People don't need to smuggle them anymore. But the question he asked—what is cinema for?—that's eternal. Is it entertainment or resistance? He chose resistance.