The installation of a neoliberal political regime and its ultimate collapse left a profound imprint on Argentine national, cultural and class identities. In a context of rapid change, the need to challenge and redefine one's place in the world was crucial for the people of Argentina as they endured one of the worst economic crises ever to hit the country. With its different representations of the period’s social transformations, domestic fiction cinema accompanied the change in national direction towards an economic, social and political model that sought to revive some of the key features of the welfare model that existed in predictatorship Argentina. Critiques of Argentine cinema have too often displayed a lack of interest in, or outright exclusion of, certain categories of films, directors, and genres. Addressing some of these exclusions has been an overarching objective of this book because I am convinced that mainstream entertainment cinema can teach us about Argentine society and culture as much as art-house cinema. To do this, I have chosen to break away both from theoretical approaches that consider films exclusively as political weapons and from those that regard them exclusively as aesthetic creations. Giving due attention to films made with different purposes and audiences in mind – some of which had already received considerable academic attention while others almost none – required the development of a new set of critical tools, to address the films and their historical context simultaneously, but also to consider the original critical assessments of these films and the wider socio-cultural reality in which they were produced.

It has now been more than three decades since President Alfonsín – widely regarded as the father of Argentine democracy – famously said during his first speech in office: ‘In democracy we eat, cure, and educate.’ Evidently his vision did not come about in the way that he, and most people, would have hoped. Argentineans have had to endure years of social struggle and several grave economic crises, all of which offers little hope that the problems of the country will be resolved soon. One of these problems, I have argued, is the deeply ingrained belief that the ‘other’, whoever that may be, is responsible for one’s predicaments.