- Starring Gastón Pauls as a Falklands War veteran, Tristán Bauer‘s real-life-inspired sociopolitical-psychological drama Blessed by Fire is about to finally reach Argentinean screens.
Tristán Bauer’s real-life-inspired Falklands War film Blessed by Fire will finally reach Argentinean screens
After five years in the making, Tristán Bauer’s Blessed by Fire / Iluminados por el fuego (lit. “Enlightened by Fire” or “Lit by Fire”), which depicts Argentina’s disastrous 1982 military campaign to seize the Falkland Islands from the United Kingdom, will finally debut on Argentinean screens tomorrow, Sept. 8.
Co-written by Bauer, Miguel Bonasso, and Gustavo Romero Borri, Blessed by Fire is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Edgardo Esteban, written in collaboration with co-screenwriter Romero Borri.
Esteban was one of the underarmed and underfed Argentinean conscripts sent to fight the far better equipped British armed forces in the inhospitable South Atlantic archipelago (known as Las Malvinas in Argentina).
The dangers of patriotic fervor
Having as its starting point the suicide of a war veteran, Blessed by Fire stars Gastón Pauls (best known internationally as the younger con man in Fabián Bielinsky’s 2000 hit Nine Queens) in the role of a journalist who, via flashbacks, recalls his experience of the ten-week-long conflict.
The film also uses clips from newsreels, including one showing thousands of Argentineans cheering then-president General Leopoldo Galtieri following his declaration of war.
Despite widespread corruption and economic rot, Argentina’s military junta was very popular among that country’s right-wingers. Even so, the Falklands War debacle paved the way for the democratization of Argentina’s political system.
Death as a companion
“When you are 18, you don’t think about death,” says Edgardo Esteban, who is now a television journalist. “But ever since this war, death has been with us constantly. Two things help me close this chapter – the book and now the movie.”
Approximately 350 Falklands War veterans have reportedly killed themselves in the last 23 years. If this figure is accurate, that’s about half the number of those who died during the war itself.
Besides Gastón Pauls, the Blessed by Fire cast includes Pablo Riva, César Albarracín, Víctor Hugo Carrizo, Virginia Innocenti, Juan Leyrado, Jon Lucas, and Arturo Bonín.
“Falklands War Film Finally Opens in Argentina” notes
Predecessors
Blessed by Fire has elements in common with previous big-screen dramas about the lasting effects of disastrous wars and battles fought elsewhere, among them Peter Weir’s Australian-made World War I-set Gallipoli, and a couple of U.S.-made releases about Vietnam War veterans, Hal Ashby’s Coming Home and Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July.
Silver Condor Awards 2006
Update: At the Argentinean Film Critics Association’s 2006 Silver Condor Awards, Tristán Bauer’s Blessed by Fire topped four categories:
- Best Supporting Actress (Virginia Innocenti)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (Miguel Bonasso, Edgardo Esteban, Tristán Bauer & Gustavo Romero Borri)
- Best Film Editing (Alejandro Brodersohn)
- Best Art Direction (Graciela Fraguglia)
Blessed by Fire lost the Best Film Silver Condor to Fabián Bielinsky’s suspense drama The Aura.
Gastón Pauls Blessed by Fire image: Distribution Company.
“Falklands War Film Finally Opens in Argentina” last modified in May 2026.