Almost a year has passed since Leo Messi's albiceleste team won the World Cup in Qatar, a sporting victory that made that immense country in the American Southern Cone explode with joy. Now, when that euphoria subsides and only the most memorable memories remain, Argentina lives once again immersed in a discouraging political scenario.
Argentina is for Argentines the best country in the world and… the worst. How can you explain that a place that inspires so much self-esteem is, at the same time, a social and political puzzle in which there are missing or extra pieces, which you know will never fit together.
An endless avalanche of Argentine cinema explains what they think of themselves. Sometimes in comedy and other times in drama, the message is that they are as in love with what they are, as they are relentless with themselves. And that is a sensation that is difficult to understand from Barcelona, a city that loves Argentina and where, according to the municipal register at the beginning of 2023, 41,097 Argentine nationals, naturalized Spaniards and those with another nationality live.
A television series, Nada, is the latest Argentine gem. It is an Apple TV work, which combines comedy with drama, directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. In addition to exceptional cinematography and an intelligent script, there is the magnificent performance of its protagonist, Luis Brandoni. And if that were not enough, Nada has Robert De Niro as narrator. A very famous gastronomic critic in Buenos Aires, Manuel Tamayo Prats, played by Brandoni, takes us into Buenos Aires life, and a friend of his, the New York novelist Vincent Parisi (De Niro), attests to the extraordinary qualities of Buenos Aires and its people These days social networks are exploiting the idea that De Niro develops in Nada: “New York is not the only city that never sleeps. There is also Buenos Aires.”
Watch the series and let's see what happens on the 19th in the election runoff. Analysts predict that whatever happens, it will not be entirely positive. Given that perspective and the added idea that Argentina is part of the non-aligned (Brics) we will have to think that the bad feelings of the Argentines are defeating the good ones. And that is bad news for them and for everyone who loves them.
