Toponimia

Toponymy is the study of the origins of place names. In this film, Jonathan Perel shows us a visual variation on this. He looks at four places in the west of the Argentine province of Tucuman. They were founded in the mid-1970s by the military regime, which wanted to eliminate the guerilla groups active in this region. The places are named after soldiers who died in fights with the guerillas.
Aerial photographs and the official documents founding the villages are followed by shots of everyday life today. Perel uses static shots, each lasting 15 seconds. There are kids playing soccer, chickens grubbing around and street signs, some of them very worn. Each village has a bust of a soldier, a statue of a mother and child, and a well. But also derelict buildings and half completed streets that disappear into the wilderness. The utopia imposed by the military is slowly being worn away by nature and time. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)