Figure 1.--This movie poster shows Harry and his parents.
|
Figure 1.--This movie poster shows Harry and his parents. |
The title of Kamchatka comes from the forbidding Siberian Kamchatka Peninsula. This is an alegory from going into the cold or hiding from the military authorities. Harry is an ordinary 10- year old boy. He goes to school, he enjoys board games and watching TV. His father is a lawyer, his mother works at University, and his younger brother, Tiny, is his inevitable messmate. The world Harry lives in is not normal. Argentina's government in 1976 has been displaced by a coup d'etat. Thousands of citizens are hunted, abducted, and dissappear. In most of the cases, the only crime those people can be accused of is to have verbally opposed such regime. This is the case of Harry's parents.
Harry is an ordinary 10- year old boy. He goes to school, he enjoys board games and watching TV. His father is a lawyer, his mother works at University, and his younger brother, Tiny, is his inevitable messmate.
The world Harry lives in is not normal. Argentina's government in 1976 has been displaced by a coup d'etat. Thousands of citizens are hunted, abducted, and dissappear. In most of the cases, the only crime those people can be accused of is to have verbally opposed such regime. This is the case of Harry's parents. Knowing they are being hunted they decide to hide away. They take their kids out of school, leave the house and hide in a farm in the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Harry and Tiny are not very happy with their new life. They grieve for having been taken away from their friends, their school, their toys and their ordinary life. Nevertheless they, little by little, begin to apreciate the advantages of their new and funny
situation, free time to explore the farm, the opportuniy to meet exciting and
mysterious people such as Lucas a teenager who their parents put up for a while.
(Lucas is also a runaway). The boys at first arejealous of him, but then he becomes
their best ally. They even find the needs to take on new personalities such as
the heroes from their favorite comics. Harry (whose real name is not harry)
chooses this name after his idol Houdini "King of handcuffs".
Unfortunately time is not on their side. The military gets to them and is hot on their heels. Cornered by the authorities, their parents decide to leave the childrens with their
grandparents in order to keep them away from the frontline. When the comes to
say goodbye, before getting into a beat-up car which will lead them to their
final escape, their parents leave Harry, their favorite board game, a game of
war tactics, knowing they are giveing him much more than just a passtime. The
rules of the game hides a secret that only Harry will discover, and which will
help him hold out until the sun rise back upon that cold wintry country.
Figure 2.--Both Harry and his brother Tiny in this still wear their school smocks before they went into hiding. |
The boys wear standard 1970s clothing. Both bots wear long pants. Harry has a denim jacket. Tiny wears striped "T" shirts. They wear sneakers. Both boys wear school smocks at the beginning of the film. Harry has a white front buttoning smock. Tiny has a light blue back buttoning smock.
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