JUAN GIL NAVARRO:AN ACTOR WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

I met Juan Gil Navarro in Buenos Aires, at the Teatro Apolo, where he is appearing as Edmund in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Navarro has played many roles during his long acting career; at the age of fifteen he was already working in the theatre, and his television debut was in 1995 with a part in Montaña Rusa oltra vuelta, followed by the TV soaps Verano ’98 and Soy Gitano in 2003. In 2000 he won the Florencio Sánchez prize for best leading actor, which he was to win again in 2008 and 2009. After Floriencia in 2004, Navarro began a series of less romantic and more serious roles: Diego in Historias de sexo de gente común in 2004 and Hombres de onor in 2005. This was followed by a stint as film producer with the film Buscame. In 2007 he was back to acting in TV soaps, in the comedy Lalola, where he played a playboy magazine editor. In Vidas robadas, in 2008, he played Nicolás Duarte, a criminal who kidnapped women and forced them into prostitution; this role brought him a nomination for best actor award. The film itself won the Martin Fierro award in Argentina as well as best foreign film at the Seoul International Film Festival, out of 43 contestants. Vidas robadas shed light on the grim business of human trafficking and prostitution from Argentina to other countries, and its often unsparing imagery tackled a problem that seriously involves Latin American countries: the traffic in children, a business worth more than many countries’ GDP. The lack of real borders between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay leads not only to trafficking in women and children, but in arms, drugs, organs and other illegal commodities.

The area, known as the Triple Frontier, is a piece of territory that includes one of the most important junction points for organised crime and international terrorism, so much so that American President George W. Bush was prepared to launch an attack on the area after 9/11. During my visit to South America in 2005, Professor Luigi Avonto of the University of Montevideo in Uruguay told me about this area of indiscriminate criminal activity, a totally unpoliced zone where one could find everything from dirty money laundering to tobacco smuggling, from the fencing of stolen cars to arms and drug dealing. There is also a prominent Muslim presence in the ‘border-no border’ area and funding of terrorist activities is strongly suspected. When I began investigating the area, I found myself in serious difficulties, and at one point I was asked to destroy all the photographs I had taken in South America, including those showing places of Israeli and Arab culture; I was followed for days by various groups who kept me under surveillance even after my return to Italy.

Manuela Cipri When you read the plot of ‘Vidas Robadas’ for the first time, what did you think?

Juan M. Gil Navarro When they gave me the part in Vidas robadas, I was extremely proud to take part in a fiction that denounced the fourth largest business in the world: people trafficking.

MC The traffic in people, children and organs does not involve only the poorest countries, but also and especially the industrially powerful nations. How have your ideas changed, if they have changed, after you performed in this film?

JGN The traffic in people and prostitution go hand in hand with power; drugs, arms, war and famine will never be eliminated while greed and corruption rule the world.

MC When you acted in Historia de sexo de gente comun, Which was described ad a comedy, but which in fact dealt with important pressing problems like prostitution, adolescent violenc ad drugs, why did you choose to play a part in the film and why do you think the Argentinian cinema is committed to making films with such subjects?

JGN This is true. Cinema and TV in Argentina often deal with serious topics and show violent scenes. I think this is reporting real events to some extent, but it is also a way of ‘whitewashing’ one’s sins in public. It’s as if the United Nations were to say, ‘Oh! Famine in the world is a terrible thing!’ without doing anything practical about it.

Argentinian society is violent, indifferent and not very sympathetic to others. During the military dictatorship in the seventies a typical saying was ‘Leave it alone’, meaning ‘don’t get involved, don’t be curious, don’t risk your life for others’. Since that time Argentinian society has grown up with a sense of fear: Like someone who has been beaten since they were a child and grows up thinking they will never have the power to defend themselves. The saying now, in 2010, is ‘that’s the way it is’, a clear sign that people have resigned themselves to the idea that it’s not worth while trying too hard to make a better country.

MC The severe economic crisis that has hit your county has created many problems for employment and even survival; how have Argentinian theatre and cinema dealt with this situation?

JGN There have been no new ideas either in the cinema or on TV.

MC When you acted a nineteenth cerntury romantic role in Florencia, did you think would ever have such worldwide fame? Whot was it like working with children?

JGN Working in Floricienta gave me a great deal of satisfaction. We created an hour of fantasy for children every day, and without a doubt, working with them was for me the high point of the show.

MC How important in your life are religion, politics and international affair? What do you think people must do to get along better together?

JGN I don’t believe in religion. There’s enough religion in the world for everyone to hate each other, but not enough to make them love each other… I don’t believe in politics either. As the words of the Police song ‘Spirits in the material world’ have it, "There is no political solution...to our troubled evolution..."I believe in humanity and the inner voice that we all possess. A voice that in some people is often asleep and in others, unfortunately, will never wake up at all.

MC The tragedies of Haiti, L’Aquila and other places in the world struck by nautral disasters tend to create a sense of solidarity among people, and many artists, in Hollywood and elsewhere are contributing to this solidarity. How are you Argentinian artists reacting to the situation?

JGN The cinema in Argentina is only interested in contemplating its own navel.
 

MC You are also renowned as an interpreter of Shakespeare; some time ago you acted in King Lear, with its themes of family and being able to see with one’s eyes and to see with one’s sense. How important to you are these two ‘ways of seeing’?

JGN Shakespeare is our contemporary. It’s like listening to Mozart; if you pay close attention, you’ll find all the knowledge you need to live a better life.

MC Often among the roles you paly are charecters who die and are transformed into ghosts, as for example in ‘Soy Gitano’, where you play a very intriguig and also very disquieting figure. What are your thoughts on life and death?

JGN I think our lives are short and difficult, but even so it has moments of great beauty. Death? A difficult subject. You can’t look at either death or the sun with the naked eye.

MC What cinema role would you like to play? I would be glad if one day you interpreted the story of a photo from the National Geographic (This is just an idea of mine!);what kind of relation do you have with visual images?

JGN I’ll take up the offer of the character from the National Geographic!! I would really like to be directed by Clint Eastwood! Someone said that cinema was life shot at 24 frames a second… a great job; difficult but wonderful.

I thanked Juan Navarro for his courtesy and forthrightness, and left him to return to the theatre. My thanks also go to all those who made this exclusive interview possible: Manuela Pineschi, Claudia Bedogni, Bernardo E. Bergeret, Nicola Zichella, Silvio Carini the director of Boing TV and Francesca Marchetti of Turner, Carmine Lampitto and the sister of Juan Navarro, who urged me to go ahead.

Professoressa Manuela Cipri

15.01.2010