Camila

Maria Camila O’Gorman Ximénez was a 19th-century socialite with a romantically rebellious spirit that made her speak out against the injustices of her day, especially those of the iron-fisted caudillo of Buenos Aires province (and later all Argentina), Juan Manuel de Rosas. Moved by the words and deeds of Father Ladislao, she fell in love with him.

The story of Camila O’Gorman has already been told twice in Argentinian cinema, but never before with such detail concerning the affair’s political dimensions, as well as such depth with regard to the psychological motivations behind certain acts. For instance, the obsessive hatred of Camila’s father for his own mother, whose independent streak he sees repeated in his daughter’s behaviour. Looking at the fascist core of De Rosas’s politics, one also wonders whether Camila was a way for María Luisa Bemberg to reflect on Argentina’s more recent past.