108/Cuchillo de Palo (2010): Limits and Political Potentialities of Queer Countermemory

Abstract

This chapter analyses the creative documentary Cuchillo de palo, directed by Renate Costa, as an overtly political intervention that goes against the trends of Paraguayan film production by setting a movie in the urban (versus rural) space and by featuring urban, queer protagonists. The author argues that while many proceeding Paraguayan films (like Hamaca paraguaya) are political through allegory, Cuchillo is the first one to take on the Stroessner dictatorship in an overt way by exposing the regime’s persecution of homosexuals and, in the process, shedding light on contemporary homophobia. Cuchillo tells the story of the torture and interrogations involved in the Caso Palmieri and the dictatorship’s list of “known” homosexuals: “la lista de los 108.”