Approaching the Body in Jorge Acha's "Habeas corpus": Indetermination, Christic Image and Sexual Subversion

Abstract

This article analyses the film Habeas Corpus by Argentine filmmaker Jorge Acha from the figure of the body of the detainee-disappeared portrayed in it, and, simultaneously, how it contrasts with other corporal representations. In this way, it attempts to unfold an argumentative movement that contemplates the state of indetermination implied in this figure. For this, we introduce the thinking of Hito Steyerl, who incorporates the mental experiment known as “Schrödinger’s cat” to the reflection about the political status of the disappeared. It is also of importance, secondly, the analogy with the figure of Christ, which allows a critical consideration about the role of the Catholic Church in Argentina’s last dictatorship. The detainee-disappeared is presented as a double of Christ. The paradox is that the Church itself acts as executioner and martyr producer. The Christological allegory is introduced through another metonymic figure, that of the fish, of importance in primitive Christianity and incorporated as central motif in the film. As last movement we have the approach the film makes to sexuality in relation to the experience of bondage. The thinking of Wilhelm Reich is useful here in relation to the problematic way in which fascism relates itself with sexuality, and how Habeas Corpus’ homoerotism aims to subvert the reactionary character of dictatorial perspective. At the same time, the body norm of the detainee-disappeared and of the designed and hypertrophied bodies of the bodybuilders admired by the torturer is put into contrast with each other.