LETTER FROM BUENOS AIRES

In the middle of summer, it starts snowing in Buenos Aires. The snowfall causes the sudden death of residents who venture outside unprotected. A greater menace lurks. To face it, protagonist Juan Salvo and his friends band together. The six-episode science fiction series The Eternaut (directed by Bruno Stagnaro, released in April on Netflix) was highly anticipated in Argentina, its country of origin. The cast features the iconic Ricardo Darin and Carla Peterson, with ambitious production values, special effects, and apocalyptic scenes.

Although designed for an international audience, the series is filled with distinctly Argentine elements. In addition to the omnipresent Buenos Aires, there is an explicit reference to the Falklands War (1982) and the country's great popular singers – folk music by Mercedes Sosa, cumbia by Gilda and tango by Carlos Gardel, among others.

While the series is set in the present day, it also takes the country back to the era of military dictatorship (1976-1983). Above all, it has reignited a search that has lasted for more than four decades: the search for stolen babies. The Eternaut was originally a cult comic book by author Héctor Germán Oesterheld, illustrated by Francisco Solano López, published between 1957 and 1959, and then again in 1976 for the second part.

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