The Goodbye

synopsis

After the death of her grandfather, Antonio Bonino, Toia found six negatives proving that he was a member of the Fascist Party and an aide to Benito Mussolini. Influenced by this discovery, the director sets out to trace her male family lineage, whom the end of World War II brought to Argentina. Instead of a clarification, however, the past crumbles and disintegrates into a mosaic of archival material, family films, excerpts from personal diaries and fragments of the works of Roberto Rossellini or Luchino Visconti. But it is the meanings that emerge from the combination of disparate images that offer answers and fill the information vacuum that has shaped generations of the family. The dynamics of the Bonino family's male-female relationships have a much darker basis than the social context of the time. In the story of grandfather, father, cousins and sons, Toia also finds a story of identity and of the role of wives, mothers, grandmothers and daughters in a history shaped by men.

“Nothing was expected of the women in my family. That´s made witnesses of us. This is my story.”

biography

Toia Bonino (1975), Argentine filmmaker of Italian origin, studied visual arts and psychology in Buenos Aires. Her films straddle the line between biographical narrative and essay and deal with violence and the clash with power. The main character of her feature debut Orione (2017), followed by Seeing Red (2020) and Engomado (2021), is a prisoner.

more about film

director:	Toia Bonino
producer:	Alejandra Grinschpun, Tomas Eloy Muñoz Lazaro, Valeria Bistagnino
script:	Nicolás Testoni, Gustavo Galuppo, Toia Bonino
photography:	Armin Marchesini Weihmüller
editing:	Gustavo Galuppo
music:	Santiago Pedroncini
sound:	Mercedes Gaviria
co-producer:	Alejandro de La Fuente (Atacama Film)

contact

Marina Scardaccione / Santa Cine
festivales@santacine.com