MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

F***lands - in lieu of a review

Having been subjected to months of media and Internet hype about a film which had been secretly shot in the Falkland Islands I had decided long ago that it sounded like the sort of thing I was going to hate if I ever got round to seeing it. Such a view was largely based on the fact that as a journalist and a researcher working on the subject of the Falkland Islands this media and Internet craze had mostly boiled down to getting crack of dawn phone calls from press colleagues wanting to get “your views” on a matter about which they generally confessed to knowing next to nothing

So when the invitation to attend the opening night came through the other afternoon my initial reaction was at best mixed, but eventually I decided to be open minded and at least see the blinking thing before burying it away with all those other things concocted about the Falkland Islands which I wrote off over the years.

Having now seen the film several thoughts come to mind, the first of which is that, whatever else it may be, F***lands is clearly not just another film about the Falkland Islands. If anything it is the sum of a whole range of Argentine preconceptions about a place about which so much has been said, thought, written or felt in this country but - surprisingly even today .- very little is really known.

Starting with the name chosen for the film which is clearly both extremely offensive and an accurate play of words on the main theme of the film, the choice of the very word F***lands highlights extremely eloquently the very nature of the Falklands-Malvinas conflict, the totally different meaning most Argentines and most islanders give to their differing perceptions of the everything the Falkland or Malvinas means to each of them. What may be seen as little more than a witty play of words in Argentina is simply unacceptable to most islanders. But then so are most other Argentine opinions on this matter.

The fact that the film was shot secretly must rate as the second giveaway clue about the differing views on the subject of the Falkland Islands versus las Islas Malvinas debate. As any islander knows filming on the islands is not subjected to any sort of special regulations. By and large one is allowed to film freely and with the exception of Mount Pleasant - like any operational military base in the UK, Argentina or anywhere else - no special requirements are made which makes the whole idea of filming secretly on the islands a rather curious exercise. Why should anyone want to film secretly in a place where one can do so openly anyhow?. The answer probably lies in the fact that the producers decided to do this precisely because the story line calls for this.

The whole film hinges on the fact that the male protagonist is embarked on a one man campaign to change the Falkland- Malvinas