La Hora de los hornos

“Furnaces” is the name given to the fires that the Indians lit on the south coast of Argentina, whenever they saw a European boat pass by. Fernando Solanas took the title for his three-part documentary on the history of Argentina and its (neo)colonialist repercussions from a poem by José Martí: “The hour of the furnaces is come, and now we can do nothing but see the light”. The complex editing is what gives the film its force. In thirteen chapters, what is revealed and formalised is the relationship between daily violence and exploitation, the lack of health care services and the constant police abuse, the domination of the farming oligarchy with its melancholic and reactionary attachment to the old Europe, the industrial urban bourgeoisie, the coups d’état and racism. Its praise of the resistance and liberation struggles throughout Latin America, gives the film great symbolic value for the continent, much like Battleship Potemkin. A classic of political cinema.