The young magistrate, who later became a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, was already aware at the time that he was pleading before the whole country, and not just before the court, he said in an interview in early March. to AFP in Malibu, California.

"I won the battle for understanding in 1985," he says.

"Argentina 1985", which competes in the category of best international film, reminds him of the importance of not leaving crimes against humanity unpunished.

The work recounts the determination of Mr. Ocampo and his superior, Julio Strassera, to lead the accusation against nine officials of the military dictatorship in power between 1976 and 1983, only two years after its fall.

The trial resulted in the life sentences of ex-dictators Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera, figures of a regime responsible for around 30,000 missing persons.

"And it's unique," rejoices Luis Moreno Ocampo, father of four.

"My 23-year-old son didn't know what happened. Today he is learning."

Assistant prosecutor during the trial, Mr. Ocampo is played on screen by Peter Lanzani.

"Criminals or enemies?"

The junta tortured and killed thousands of Argentines in its "clandestine detention centers".

She also threw people alive overboard from planes, and hundreds of babies born in captivity were given to other families, including army officers.

Beyond its historical dimension, the film has an international scope, according to Mr. Ocampo.

It raises the question of the treatment of violent people in a divided society.

"Do we treat them as enemies who can be killed or as criminals who must be investigated?" Asks the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (2003-2012), today now 70 years old.

"We cannot treat citizens as enemies", as the army did in Argentina, he insists.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, during an interview with AFP in Malibu, California, March 6, 2023 © Robyn BECK / AFP

Beyond the immense emotion caused by the film in Argentina, it was well received in Spain and Brazil, countries whose own dictatorship has never been judged.

"They did not investigate the past (...) it has an impact," said Mr. Ocampo, pointing to the situation in Brazil, where an insurrection led by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro tried to overthrow President Lula in January.

In a society that has never healed its wounds, treating the adversary as an enemy is acceptable, he summarizes.

But "if the elites support a coup, you have a problem."

"It's something that Brazil, and even the United States, have not understood," adds this academic, who has taught at several American universities and now lives in Malibu.

"The invasion of the Capitol, it was not only the people who mobilized," he adds.

"To me, it's impressive how members of Congress are still supporting Jan. 6, 2020 today.

"Youth Power"

"This film is about the risk of losing democracy. But it is also about the power of youth," continues Mr. Ocampo.

"Argentina 1985" indeed returns to the way in which the prosecutor Julio Strassera was forced to form a team of novices around his young assistant.

The magistrates in office were afraid of possible reprisals and so he had to recruit inexperienced jurists to build the accusation against the fallen junta.

"Young people are the ones who change the world and we must continue to fight for justice. Justice is a never-ending job", underlines Mr. Ocampo, who had to face his own mother, a supporter of the army, for this trial.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, during an interview with AFP, in Malibu, California, March 6, 2023 © Robyn BECK / AFP

She "went to mass with the dictator Jorge Videla", he says.

But in the face of shocking testimonies, like the one detailed in the film of a woman kidnapped and forced to give birth handcuffed in the back seat of a car, the matriarch ended up changing her mind.

“The next day she called me,” recalls Mr. Ocampo.

"She said to me: + I still love General Videla, but you are right, he must go to prison +".

© 2023 AFP