"Flora no es un canto a la vida" (2018), de Iair Said: retratos de presente, signaturas de pasado

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the film Flora no es un canto a la vida (2018) by Iair Said, exploring the relationship between portrait and self-portrait to highlight a deeper contact zone between the two protagonists of the film. As the director and protagonist develops his 'character,' he simultaneously composes a portrait of his great-aunt Flora, 'a ninety-year-old single woman who has wanted to die since she was born.' In a process of fictionalization characteristic of performative documentary, the film reveals the persistence of a tradition: that of the Jewish diaspora, or more specifically, that of the Jewish humor of the diaspora, and its continuities, or better yet, its afterlife in contemporary Argentine cinema.