The Hour of Furnaces (1968) by left Peronists F. Solanas and O. Hetino is one of the most influential political films of the New Latin American cinema. This article analyzes the most its image of the past and compares it with one of another major work by Solanas, The Voyage (1992). The main theme of The Hour of Furnaces is that of the construction of the Argentine nation. Within the paradigm of a «counter-history» opposed to the official one, the formation of the Argentine nation is treated as an unfinished process that began with the conquest of political independence, but was undermined in the bud by the capitulation of the creole bourgeoisie to the foreign-first British, then American- capital; economic dependence is followed by cultural one. The subsequent history of the country is presented as a confrontation between-national? forces interested in achieving genuine independence associated with socialism and their-anti-national? opponents. The first genealogy includes federalist caudillos of the 19th century and the Peronist movement, and the second, the oligarchy, the bureaucratic and repressive apparatus, and also part of the intellectuals that disagree to recongnize the Peronism as a socialist movement. In The Voyage , Solanas narrates the history of (unfinished) construction of the Latin American nation. At the same time, the neoliberalism dominating Argentina is presented as a key agent of destruction of the historical memory, both revolutionary and official.
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