Paraguay Picks ‘Under the Flags, the Sun’ for Oscars for Best International Feature Film

Under the Flags, the Sun (Bajo las banderas, el sol) by director Juanjo Pereira will represent Paraguay in the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.

Under the Flags, the Sun is a documentary constructed entirely from archival footage – propaganda films, newsreels, broadcasts from Paraguay and other countries, that examines how Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship (1954-1989) shaped national identity, manipulated memory, and used media as a machinery of control.

As the film is archival in nature, its “cast” is largely composed of historical figures captured in the media: Stroessner himself, state officials, citizens, and media sources. The creative team, including Pereira, worked to reclaim forgotten footage and pieces of media that had been lost or obscured.

The film had its world premiere at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Jury Prize.

Juanjo Pereira has spoken about the film’s intention saying in an interview, “For me it was more important to look at that period in order to understand my own present, rather than just going back to 1870. The film is, in a way, a process of learning about the political forces that shaped the country at that time. I decided to illustrate the political happenings of a small country which, improbably, became a key chess piece geopolitically. Stroessner was central to Operation Condor.”