Netflix’s new sci-fi series The Eternaut brings Argentina’s iconic 1950s comic to life in a powerful allegory of resistance. Actor Ricardo Darin leads the cast in a haunting tale of survival, unity, and historical memory.
Survival through teamwork: it's a tale as old as time with particular resonance today, says Argentine actor Ricardo Darin of his latest project The Eternaut, which hit Netflix on Wednesday.
Based on a 1950s comic with iconic status in the South American country, the sci-fi series tells the story of a mysterious, toxic snowfall that precedes an alien invasion of Buenos Aires.
More elementally, it is about ordinary people with few resources and no special powers who collectively stare down a totalitarian threat, Darin, 68, told AFP in an interview.
"The communities that managed to survive were those that stood shoulder to shoulder, defended themselves, and did not care only about what happened to them individually," he said of the storyline.
In this way, the series "resonates" with the present, said Darin, though he declined to specify which threat in particular he was referring to.
Directed and scripted by Argentina's Bruno Stagnaro, The Eternaut is based on the comic of the same name serialized by writer Hector Oesterheld and illustrator Francisco Solano Lopez between 1957 and 1959.
Oesterheld revived the series in the 1960s, with increasingly political overtones believed to have contributed to his kidnapping in 1977 under Argentina's brutal military dictatorship.
He was never heard from again, nor were his four daughters and three sons-in-law, all of whom are listed among the estimated 30,000 people "disappeared" by agents of the dictatorship, according to rights groups.
Darin, known for his roles in the films Nine Queens, Wild Tales, and The Secret in Their Eyes — which won the Oscar for Best International Feature in 2010 — said he was initially afraid to play Juan Salvo, the resistance hero in The Eternaut.
He had no background in science fiction and had to perform demanding stunts.
"Physically it was very, very hard work," the actor said.
"Each day, the end of filming found us exhausted, and with little recovery time."
Darin participated in 113 of the 148 days of shooting, often wearing Salvo's heavy snow-proof outfit on sets covered with tons of cumbersome artificial snow.
"Not to mention the things that happen in an action shoot, where you have to roll, jump, fall, crash, fight — a series of things that when you're 25 or 30 years old, it's nothing, but for me, who is 114..." he laughed.
Darin is hopeful the series will boost Argentine cinema at a time when the government of budget-slashing President Javier Milei has withdrawn state support for the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts, and for culture in general.
"Nothing like this has ever been done here," said Darin of the project.
By Nicolás BIEDERMAN / AFP
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