Based on a best-seller by Tomás Eloy Martínez, this 7-parter takes an almost detective approach to telling the Evita story, focusing it around a journalist researching to find out what happened to Evita’s embalmed body after her death and in the decades before it was returned to Peron in Madrid. This mystery is used to hang the biography of Evita on and to flash out some of the characters around her at her death.
The series advances in 3 time frames.
One is in 1971 as journalist Mariano (Diego Cremonesi) is given the job by his editor to find out what happened to Eva Peron’s body after she dies and Peron himself had to flee the country. The military demolished the Presidential residence and scuppered plans to make a huge mausoleum to Evita.
Mariano soon discovers that there are people who don’t want him sniffing around. A second time period runs from 1951 onwards, a little before her death and involves Colonel Moori Koenig, the military man in charge or protecting her when alive and protecting her dead body later on.
In an almost farcical scenario, the body is hidden in different places in Buenos Aires, eventually ending up in Italy. Long after she was returned to Argentina and now lies in the family vault in Recoleta cemetery hidden from public view. Moori Koenig, played extravagantly by Ernesto Alterio is secretly obsessed with Evita as are some of his men.
Using events in this period as a hook, the series also goes back in time to show Eva as a teenager in her small town, how she came to the capital and her early days in radio theatre.
We also see how romance burgeoned between her and Peron, a man much older than her, and in the final part, her work with the poor. Her reputation as a defender of the poor and their rights has remained almost mythically even though she was a character as much loves as hated in the country.
Natalia Oreiro, local music star and actress, has the role of portraying the adult Eva. She grows into the role and is much more convincing in the last two episodes but is not enough of a character actress to do justice to the part. It is an adequate portrayal, no more.
Alterio starts strong as the Colonel but gets weirder as his character starts to melt down. Dario Grandinetti as Peron is a solid performance throughout without giving us too much charisma and Diego Cremonesi does well as the journalist. Most of the minor characters are well performed.
The recreation of the period is careful and convincing. What I found rather banal and predictable was the screenplay and it came across, a bit like the direction, as a bit of a paint-by-numbers exercise. Although the 3 timeframes got smoother at the end, it all seemed a bit self-conscious and even laborious early on.
A good enough summary of this part of Evita’s life and the corpse chase is a twist on many biopics. But it all lacks a bit of magic and spark to turn it ito something really gripping.
3 stars
passionfilm 