Argentine multi-hyphenates Tamae Garateguy (“Auxilio”), Sant Giralt (“Before Opening Night”) and Camila Toker (“La danza del impacto”) reunite to debut the fourth installment of their sardonic and timely Upa! Saga, “Upa! A Spring in Athens” (“Upa! Una primavera en Atenas”), its world premiere set to open the 26th edition of the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (Bafici), running April 1-13.
Produced by Giralt and Fede Carol’s Los Griegos Films and Garateguy, Giralt and Toker’s upafilms alongside associate producer Hildegunn Wærness — who reprises the role of exotic ingénue Hilde, the project offers a satirical look at the independent film circuit. Full of acerbic hedonism, reverie and tragedy, the narrative sinks into a universe the trio concocted that spans decades and sees them embody their on-screen alter-egos, Ailén, Nina and Pina, who wind through the minutiae of the industry, one let-down at a time — no trope left unexamined, no ego left unscathed, no bastion of indie cinema left out of sly mentions.
In its infancy, the storyline was a simple and standalone idea borne of the mutual desire to shoot their first films. After running into one another several times while navigating clinics and workshops trying to kickstart disparate projects, they decided on a joint venture — using their likenesses to convey the tumultuous lives of three budding low-budget cineastes.
“We convinced each other that it was time to go out and do it, from this idea that the first movie doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be the first one — the one that breaks the ice. From that impulse, we went out to film, improvise. The first thing we decided on was that each of us should take the only little camera we had and create a self-portrait of our character,” Giralt told Variety.
That journey began in 2007 with “Upa! An Argentine Film,” which also bowed at Bafici. Eight years later, “Upa! The Return” followed, and most recently, “Upa! An Argentine Pandemic” was released. The projects chronicle the pitfalls of creating art in a world both thirsty for it and far removed from the nurturing it calls for while touching on the broader cultural climate that inevitably influences the way stories are told and disseminated.
Reminiscent of the Richard Linklater “Before” trilogy and pulling organically from the Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg-founded Dogme 95 Danish avant-garde movement, the films are intrinsically purist — forming a time capsule filled with snapshots of a scene and the magnetic characters that inhabit it.
“We had natural obstacles in the Argentine production system at that time — the use of video, for example, which our contemporaries almost looked at in disgust, because everyone wanted to film on film. We just grabbed some little cameras that we had, the ones we used to record birthdays. At the time, it was like throwing modesty to the wind,” Toker explained.
“‘Upa!’ functions as a commentary on the context of these moments in cinema, in the country, in our community. It works on another level, it’s also a story about the arc of these characters over time. It’s a diary of our lives because the locations are our homes, the children cast are our children. So, in addition to providing a trip back in time, there’s an emotional factor, a nostalgic factor,” Garateguy added.
Now, with over 25 films between them, the project stands as a tremendous example of life imitating art, as the characters travel to Greece to film Pina’s latest project, taking advantage of hefty film rebates and scouring the country for prime shoot locations. This time around, the story takes a slightly solemn and deviant tone, inevitably touching on Argentine president Javier Milei’s culturally-vacant political regime, currently working to smother the national film industry — running renowned talent abroad to produce their films in more financially hospitable regions rather than fostering their abundant creativity at home.
“We, as a film community, felt very proud to be working for our country. Argentine cinema had great development, a time of great recognition all over the world, which it no longer has because fewer films are made here. So, what’s the identity of Argentine cinema? I think that genre films—horror, comedy, even westerns— are going to be the films that will be the vanguard of the cinematic resistance in Argentina,” Garateguy opined.
Tackling sexuality, identity, aging and mental strife, Ailén, Nina and Pina represent a fissure in established norms. The filmmakers make easy work of granting them the agency to see their stories through, bucking a backdrop of ignorance to stand up to forces attempting to quiet the voices of impending revolution.
“We didn’t decide to be queer or anti-fascist, we simply are. That has increasing importance in this latest film, in these moments where we realize that simply existing is a form of anti-fascist resistance. Our characters move in the world with the freedom that we give them to exist. Today, that’s revolutionary to some extent, counterculture,” Toker asserted.
“In Pina’s case, she’s so queer — her image is the image they don’t want to see, the embodiment of that otherness that they want so badly to binary, that they want to silence,” Giralt admitted.
“I thought I’d never live to see a time in my life when we would have to defend our existing rights instead of continuing to conquer and gain them. We’re at a stage, in the United States and Argentina, where we have to defend the rights we’ve already achieved,” Giralt added.
With larger audiences warming to independent, diverse cinema, evidenced by the recent Oscars sweep by Sean Baker’s “Anora,” and desperate to break from the algorithm — musicals “Wicked” and “Emilia Perez” both lauded for their unique approach to the medium — the “Upa!” universe is primed for success, if not already ahead of the curve — having worked these elements into fruition long before they were on-trend.
With the most recent devotional, audiences can expect a stunning metamorphosis, a deliciously comic revenge plot, delicately-placed song and dance numbers and the wide-open finale the films are known for, allowing the chance for the characters to continue the storyline infinitely — no sign of retiring their will to lay bare the trials and tribulations of artists in flux.
As Garateguy cheekily concluded, “‘Upa!’ is a whole world, a world full of characters. We’re even open to the possibility of a platform appearing and financing us for a while. Because ‘Upa!’ has the potential to be truly anything.”
