Confianza, comunidad y eclipse del otro: Una lectura de La vieja de atrás (2010) de Pablo José Meza y Un cuento chino (2011), de Sebastián Borensztein

Abstract

Based on concepts drawn from Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman, Jacques Derrida and Roger Silverstone, this article proposes an approach to two Argentine films: La vieja de atr᳠(2010), by Pablo Jos頍eza, and Un cuento chino (2011), by SebastiᮠBorensztein. On the one hand, it explores the discursive practices used to describe the otherness. On the other hand, it studies the social ties on which community cohesion has been built and its modes of (dis)trust production. It concludes that both films suggest two complementary perspectives about the Argentine present. While La vieja de atr᳠exhibits the falsehood on which a sense of community has been built during these years -revealing perverse mechanisms of confinement and isolation-, Un cuento chino opens a consensus space where social ties and mutual trust are recovered.