%0 Journal Article 
%A Gómez, Leticia
%A Castro, Azucena
%T Shrieks from the margins of the human: framing the environmental crisis in two contemporary Latin American movies

%D 2019
%@ 2171-9594
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10017/37809
%X The contemporary fictional films “Nosilatiaj. La belleza [Beauty]” (dir. Daniela Seggiaro, 2012) and “Los decentes [A Decent Woman]” (dir. Lukas Valenta Rinner, 2016) explore the complex intraaction between the human and the non-human worlds, in this case the animal world and the natural landscape, in the context of environmental crisis. In both movies, images of natural landscapes are accompanied by depictions of class inequalities and the environmental crisis. As fiction, the films present an environmental perspective through a symbolic framing of nature. This highlights the marginal place assigned to the non-human world by progress and development. In “Beauty”, nature is threatened by deforestation of the dry forest landscape called the Bush or the Gran Chaco. Throughout the film, the landscape is always present in the background, either fragmented or just suggested in the memories and subjectivity of the protagonist, Yolanda, a girl of the Wichí people. A “Decent Woman” adopts the trope of idyllic nature through a nudist community set in a natural junglelike area adjacent to a gated community for wealthy residents. Belén, the protagonist, a maid working in the gated area, begins participating in the nudists’ rituals. Employing posthuman and new materialist theories, the article analyzes scenes from both movies that foreground the interactions between the human and the more-than-human world in the light of the threats to the natural ecosystem. We discuss the framing of the environmental crisis through the intervention of animals and the animalization of characters, which exemplify the haunting presence of a receding but resistant nature. While nature vanishes from the screen—it is either cut out for agriculture or for ornamental parks in private neighborhoods—the viewers are placed in an active position that prompts ethical thinking concerning the environment.

%K Beauty
%K A decent woman
%K The more-than-human world
%K Nature/culture
%K Environmental crisis
%K Latin American cinema
%K Nosilatiaj
%K La belleza
%K Los decentes
%K El mundo más que humano
%K Naturaleza/cultura
%K Crisis medioambiental
%K Cine latinoamericano
%K Literatura
%K Literature
%K Medio ambiente
%K Environmental science
%~ Biblioteca Universidad de Alcala