La Guerre des Malouines

Five years after the end of the war in the Falklands between Britain and Argentina, many facts were still wrapped in red tape. Many of the key figures had remained silent. No one had been to Argentina to tell the other side of the story. For the majority of the British people, the war was another glorious chapter in their history. With flags waving and bands playing, British troops had sailed away to repel the invaders. Patriotic emotions were stirred as they returned victorious. And yet the few combatants that had spoken painted a very different picture. Of a savage, bloody war against an enemy so recently a close friend. The programme’s producer/director Peter Kosminsky says “We set out to tell the real story of what war is like in the 80s. We were not concerned with raking over the rival claims to the islands. It was not an easy film to shoot. Listening to a mother talk about her dead son, whether British or Argentine, was equally painful. Serving soldiers spoke freely about their feelings when faced with the death and mutilation of their colleagues. The stories we filmed were increasingly at odds with the accepted view of the war in Britain. The programme was bound to challenge some of the assumptions people had about the conflict.” The Falklands War: the Untold Story caused controversy in Britain because it also told the Argentine side of the story. Government MPs tried to get the film banned. But YTV’s telephones were jammed with messages of support from the wives and mothers of those who died in the conflict. Called “the documentary to end all documentaries about the Falklands War” in the British press, it was also described as “more poem than polemic, a hymn against war”