The 2022 documentary Camouflaje quietly yet persistently shines a light on Argentina’s difficult task of confronting the terrors of its past. Directed by Jonathan Perel, the film centers around writer Félix Bruzzone and his ongoing search to uncover what truly happened at the sprawling Campo de Mayo military base during the brutal 1976–1983 military dictatorship.
It’s here that Bruzzone’s mother was detained and disappeared decades ago, and where tens of thousands of others were imprisoned, tortured, and killed within the base’s then carefully concealed inner workings.
Today, Campo de Mayo remains an active military compound surrounded by dense vegetation, with its landscape and buildings largely reclaimed by nature yet still heavily restricted from outside eyes. Perel’s camera accompanies Bruzzone as he talks to local residents and personally explores the overgrown expanses, encountering both remnants of horror and signs of new life emerging from this traumatic ground.
Through their quiet, patient presence, filmmaker and subject together work to map what lay hidden below camouflaje’s surface and ensure at least some trace of the past survives within public memory. In the process, Camouflaje becomes a contemplative yet urgent work of memorial-making, carefully piecing together knowledge while respecting the scars that still linger in both land and people.
The Ongoing Search
Félix Bruzzone is driven by an enduring connection to Campo de Mayo. As a child, his mother, Marcela, was imprisoned within its walls, lost to the horrors that transpired behind a façade of normalcy. Now residing nearby, Félix finds himself continually drawn to traverse the sprawling complex, now largely reclaimed by nature but unchanged in its militaristic restrictions.
On his runs, Félix crosses paths with others who bear their own scars from Campo de Mayo. A dinosaur researcher dreams of transforming its grounds into a sanctuary for the rich biodiversity flourishing within. Young artists venture cautiously into the ruins of abandoned buildings, reimagining past terrors through vibrant creations. A fitness trainer guides Félix with intimate local knowledge of the terrain.
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In episodic conversations, they remember and reexamine this place and its legacy. Casual chats in leafy streets or during relaxed strolls through lush overgrowth take a searching turn as voices open up about private pains. A childhood friend points to simple beauties like shoreline turtles, yet shadows linger in thoughtful pauses. A survivor fights an aching battle to establish a fitting memorial for the multitudes lost to oblivion within these woods.
Felix is equally restless. Venturing deeper into once-forbidden grounds through virtual maps and in person, surrounded yet alone with questions, he continues the struggle to peel back layers of imposed forgetting. Perel’s gentle yet unflinching camera captures an ongoing personal process of remembrance as an entire community works to excavate memory from what remains. In Félix and those who share pieces of their history, the film finds a quiet humanity in resisting closure.
Campo de Mayo: A Hidden Hellscape Still Haunts Argentina
Stretching across 17 square kilometers of woodlands and wetlands, the sprawling military base of Campo de Mayo sits just outside Buenos Aires. During Argentina’s Dirty War from 1976 to 1983, this verdant expanse concealed a nightmare. Within the forest’s foliage, thousands were imprisoned, subjected to unspeakable torture, and executed by the ruling junta.
The regime worked fervently to portray Campo de Mayo as peaceful grounds. Roads passed openly through its borders, giving civilians casual views of apparent normalcy. Yet scattered amongst the trees lay hidden compounds like “El Campito,” where screams seldom reached the ears of outsiders. Nature itself became an accomplice, muting the horrors within its embrace. Even as memories fade, the base retains control over vast swaths left purposelessly fallow.
While new growth obscures the past, traces stubbornly endure. Survivors recall tiled rooms echoing with the whimpers of broken men. Ruined barracks still stand amongst encroaching vines, their structure all that remains of the “Campito,” memorialized only by a plaque. A virtual simulation maps the layout of these vanished chambers, yet filling their halls brings no solace. Only emptiness stares back from what was once crammed with living souls left to rot.
Though decades have passed, reconciliation seems distant as the military maintains its claim. Soldiers occasionally appear to interrogate curious trespassers. A marathon dubbed “Killer Race” is the only time civilians may officially enter these forbidden fields. But for those wrestling with memories, no vegetation can overgrow; the base will forever symbolize a nation’s failure to bury its demons. At Campo de Mayo, Argentina’s “Dirty War” refuses to be forgotten, its shadows retaining power to haunt from beyond the grave.
Campo de Mayo’s Lingering Shadow
The sprawling forests and winding trails of Campo de Mayo conceal a dark past that still weighs heavily on the present. Within the military base’s vast boundaries, thousands lost their lives to the brutal regime of the ’70s. While nature has now largely reclaimed the ruined buildings, for those intimately linked to the horrors that unfolded there, an open wound remains.
Felix Bruzzone knows this pain all too well. His mother Marcela was one of the many “disappeared” within Campo de Mayo’s walls; her final moments were lost to history. Now, whenever Félix runs the winding paths near his home, she is never far from his thoughts. Through his quiet explorations, he seeks invisible traces of the life that was cut so cruelly short. Yet for all his searching, no answers emerge from the shroud of vegetation.
Others also bear the scars, though in different ways. A survivor spends years campaigning to establish a memorial among the ruins so future generations won’t forget the terrors concealed so long. Younger inhabitants drawn to the place find inspiration in the wilderness, driven to breathe life into the haunted landscape through art. But for the military still stationed at the base, the past demands silence.
As the documentary reveals, while nature may slowly erase the physical remnants of Argentina’s horrific era, the deep wounds can never fully heal. Even now, Campo de Mayo maintains its oppressive hold over those forever changed within its borders. Its legacy, like Félix’s endless search, will continue lingering in the tangled depths of its concealing forest for years to come.
Returning to Haunt
As his shoes pound the hard earth, Félix Bruzzone’s thoughts wander through spaces now reclaimed by nature. It is strange to imagine what secrets this sprawling landscape once concealed beneath a veneer of normalcy. Though thick foliage now cloaks the past, its shadow lingers still.
On his journeys, Félix encounters souls similarly bound to this place and its painful heritage. A researcher shares her joy in discovering new life taking root where darkness once dwelled. Yet as she names flora and fauna with evident passion, an undercurrent of sorrow remains.
Elsewhere, crumbling concrete betrays structures long since surrendered to the elements. Within their decaying walls, three young artists find inspiration, drawn to breathe new purpose into the remnants of suffering. But where their gazes see creation, Félix is gripped by spectres of destruction.
His path leads to quiet shores, where still waters hide mysteries below the surface. With a companion in stillness, rare turtles emerge, oblivious to a history written in blood on this very ground. For Félix, nature’s renewal offers bittersweet solace—beauty rising unawares from barbarism’s ashes.
No fortress of foliage can erase what transpired here or numb his need to know the fate of the missing. And so Félix’s pilgrimage in the present takes him ever deeper into landscapes that haunt his past and drive his search for answers from a place reluctant to release its hold on all it entrapped within its former walls.
Visible yet veiled
Within the sprawling jungle that was once Campo de Mayo lies untold tragedy, its secrets long buried beneath the lush overgrowth. Félix Bruzzone returns here time and again, searching for traces of the past among the tangles of vines and foliage. He knows that in this place, now reopened for military exercises and shielded further by a veil of vegetation, his mother, Marcela, met her fate.
Yet exposing what cannot easily be seen poses challenges. The virtual reality scene strips away nature’s camouflage, revealing the empty barracks as they were during the dictatorship. But without people to animate the structures, it remains a sterile replica lacking humanity. The simulation underscores how effectively nature and the passage of time have obscured all outward marks of suffering. With only decaying foundations remaining, the horrors that unfolded behind once-solid walls risk fading from memory.
More frustrations emerge from the base’s ongoing restricted access. Its sprawling grounds, though ostensibly accessible, can hardly be navigated by civilians. Félix and others sneak in furtively amid fears of detection, hinting at lingering unease over confronting the site’s past. Even the sole modest memorial plaque feels stifled by thick brush, doing little to acknowledge the masses who perished within these now wild and untamed borders.
As the past becomes more distant, its tangible links dissolve. Uncovering what happened at Campo de Mayo demands constantly working to overcome obstacles—bboth natural and deliberate—tthat veil the vast tragedies imprinted on its soil. Only through persistent acts of remembrance can its history avoid being as camouflaged as the landscape itself has become over the decades since the dictatorship’s fall.
Memory Beneath the Growing Greenery
While nature has reclaimed much of Campo de Mayo, Jonathan Perel’s camouflage ensures the suffering buried there is not forgotten. Through Félix Bruzzone’s ongoing quest, we accompany a man still coming to terms with the site’s grip on his life. Despite vegetation swallowing the camp’s remains, its history refuses to be concealed.
Félix returns to the sprawling complex time and again, drawn by his mother’s fate but finding no answers amid the foliage. Fittingly, the film partly resembles a nature documentary as Félix communes with locals grappling with Campo de Mayo in their own ways. Yet conversations continually circle back to the past, with anecdotes and eyewitness accounts breathing life into the horrors that unfolded.
Even employing virtual reality, no technology can fully resurrect the camp. Its VR simulation remains strangely empty, despite the despite the recognition that the individual stories were what gave the place meaning. In bearing witness to the ongoing searches, Perel ensures the obscured past doesn’t fade from collective memory.
Through dedication to simply making those who suffered visible, camouflaje brings their pain into the present, where they remain imprisoned by the site. As Félix continues running the camp’s perimeter, the film leaves him still running from answers he may never find. Though nature erases all signs of its crimes, this thoughtful film ensures Campo de Mayo’s legacy is not so easily obscured.
The Review
Camouflage
In bearing witness through Félix's ongoing quest, Camouflage delivers a poignant reminder that collective amnesia must not erase those who vanished within Campo de Mayo's walls. Though answering to no agenda beyond honoring individual stories, Jonathan Perel has crafted a work that ensures the past remains embedded in the present for those still grappling with its grip. Sober yet compassionate in its commemoration, the film proves that sometimes the most impactful tributes are those offering no facile solutions but instead choosing to thoughtfully grapple with open wounds time cannot heal.
PROS
- Sensitively tells the stories of those still impacted by Campo de Mayo's tragic history.
- Accompanies an affecting personal journey in Félix Bruzzone's ongoing search
- Subtly brings suffering into the present through naturalistic style and conversations.
- Avoids overt commentary to allow space for individual perspectives.
CONS
- Minimal contextual details are provided about the period itself.
- Could feel deliberately paced and reserved for some viewers.
- Leaves key questions around Félix's mother unresolved.
