Wild Tango - The Legend of Tanguito - Stockholms filmfestival

Tango is a young, rebellious singer in the Buenos Aires of the military junta at the end of the 60's. Friends who have found music to be a medium for personal and political expression meet in an underground club called The Cave. Tango meets the beautiful philosophy student Mariana after one of the numerous police raids. A passion begins and together they try to create a better world ruled by love and peace. But reality won't budge and society intrudes to rehabilitate those who deviate.

COMMENTARY
Buenos Aires at the end of the 60's. The police raid the premises where Tango and his band are playing. At the police station he meets Mariana, a rebellious student, and they begin a passionate affair. Their young, intoxicating love and idealism forms a sharp contrast to the ruthless oppression by the machinery of power. Tango's nonconformity gets him arrested again and again, until he is eventually silenced.
Marcelo Piiiyero's film is inspired by Tango, the Argentinean legend of rock, and his tragic destiny. Despite the fact that he only made one record during his short career, he became the symbol of a generation who believed changing the world was possible.
He was born in the slum of Buenos Aires and was called Tango because he was such a good dancer. His life was that of a vagrant's, he lived for each day, slept where he could find a roof over his head and com-
posed in public washrooms. But having long hair and playing rock was enough to be labelled a subversive in the Buenos Aires of the 60's. Unlike his friends Tango didn't have a middle-sclass family as a safety net, and after several spells in prison, he was detained in a mental institution. On May 19 in 1972, Tango was found dead on a railway track, 27 years old. Was it an accident? Suicide? Or was he pushed?
Piiiyero's movie is an unusual Latin-American film. It has become an incredible box office hit in its own country because of the big young audience it has managed to attract. It is spectacular, well-made and entertaining and has a powerful soundtraclc However, behind the polished surface the movie is a breath of fresh air in the stale wake of postmodernism. Piiiyero's message is simple, which doesn't make it less powerful: ''You can't buy everything. Everything is not for sale. I have an infinite list of things more important than security.'' The success of the film has proved that concepts suchs as ideological integrity and authenticity are as topical as ever in today's society, where the person who dares to be different still runs a big risk.
Piiiyero said to me: ''I no longer believe that film can change the world. But on the other hand it allows us to dream of a better world, and those dreams are the beginning of changed ... ''. ':'
Anneli Bojstad