# Invasion (1969 film)
**Invasion** (original title *Invasión*) is a 1969 Argentine black-and-white science fiction and political drama directed by Hugo Santiago, written by Santiago with [Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jorge-luis-borges) and [Adolfo Bioy Casares](https://www.edgepedia.org/adolfo-bioy-casares), in which a small band of resisters led by an elderly man defends the fictional city of Aquilea, a stand-in for Buenos Aires, against an undefined invasion.[1](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Invasi%C3%B3n?hl=en_US&id=D1F696C8581EA161MV) • [2](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion) A box office failure on release, it was later banned in Argentina, its negative partly stolen, and it was rediscovered decades later; in a 2022 poll of Argentine film professionals it ranked second among the greatest Argentine films of all time.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/) • [4](https://encuestadecineargentino.com/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Hugo Santiago (feature debut), screenplay by Santiago and Jorge Luis Borges on an argument by Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares[1](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Invasi%C3%B3n?hl=en_US&id=D1F696C8581EA161MV) |
| Argentine premiere | 16 October 1969, at the since-demolished cine Hindú in Buenos Aires[5](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/invasion-la-obra-maestra-del-cine-argentino-del-fracaso-a-la-estatura-mitica-nid2284229/) |
| Setting | Aquilea, a fictional city evoking Buenos Aires in 1957, under siege by mysterious invaders[2](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion) |
| Principal cast | Olga Zubarry (Irene), Lautaro Murúa (Julián Herrera), Juan Carlos Paz (Don Porfirio), Martín Adjemián (Irala)[2](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion) |
| Format | 35 mm black and white; runtime reported as 123, 125, or 128 minutes by different archives[6](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/invasi-n) • [2](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion) |
| Music and image | Score and sound by Edgardo Cantón; cinematography by Ricardo Aronovich[2](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion) |
| Critical standing | 2nd place, with 136 votes, in the 2022 Encuesta de Cine Argentino of 546 voters[4](https://encuestadecineargentino.com/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and style
The film is set in Aquilea, a fictional city that evokes Buenos Aires in 1957. A group of men led by the elderly Don Porfirio resists a silent invasion; the invaders, men in raincoats who arrive with mysterious machinery, advance while the population remains indifferent. Julián Herrera commands the defensive actions, aware that the fight seems lost in advance, and the defenders fight to buy time without suspecting that their battle may be endless.[2](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion) The story references the [Trojan War](https://www.edgepedia.org/trojan-war), and the film has been described as an updating of the *Iliad* that shifts between police thriller and dreamlike fantasy.[9](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/invasion/)
Borges wrote of the film: "Invasión is the legend of a city, imaginary or real, besieged by powerful enemies and defended by a few men, who may not be heroes. They fight to the end, without suspecting that their battle is infinite."[6](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/invasi-n) Bioy Casares, in a 1969 comment, wrote that the film "modernizes the theme of The Iliad: it does not praise the shrewdness and effectiveness of the conqueror, but rather the courage of a handful of warriors ready to defend their Troy which is far too much like Buenos Aires."[6](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/invasi-n) Borges himself called it "a new type of fantasy" and suggested it "may well be the first example of a whole new fantastic genre," though he also felt that Santiago's modernist, nouvelle vague-influenced style departed from the genre identity he had intended.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/) • [10](https://adfcine.org/el-regreso-a-la-ciudad-imaginaria/)
The score and soundscape by Edgardo Cantón combine tango arrangements with concrete music and experimental sounds produced at the Instituto Di Tella, the cultural center of the Argentine avant-garde in the 1960s; it includes "Milonga de Manuel Flores" by Aníbal Troilo and Borges, performed by Ubaldo de Lío.[11](https://www.quintadimension.com/node/65) The composer Juan Carlos Paz, a leading figure of Argentine avant-garde music, also acts in the film as Don Porfirio, head of the resistance group.[8](https://buenosaires.gob.ar/gcaba_historico/usinadelarte/invasion)
## Production and release
Hugo Santiago (1939–2018), born in Buenos Aires, had lived in France since 1959 and worked for years as an assistant director to [Robert Bresson](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-bresson) before making his feature debut with *Invasión* at age 29.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/) • [5](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/invasion-la-obra-maestra-del-cine-argentino-del-fracaso-a-la-estatura-mitica-nid2284229/) In 1967 he described his project to Bioy Casares as a summary narrative scheme, a sketch of the general structure, and several themes to develop.[7](https://www.in-cubadora.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/LIBRE_n1.pdf) The film was produced by Proartel S.A.[6](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/invasi-n)
The film premiered in Argentina on 16 October 1969 at the cine Hindú in Buenos Aires, and it was presented at the first Quincena de los Realizadores of the Cannes Film Festival.[5](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/invasion-la-obra-maestra-del-cine-argentino-del-fracaso-a-la-estatura-mitica-nid2284229/) • [8](https://buenosaires.gob.ar/gcaba_historico/usinadelarte/invasion) It came out to critical acclaim but was a box office failure, and it was practically forgotten until a re-edited version appeared on DVD in 2008.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/) Bioy Casares recorded the premiere night in his diary: "The film does not reach the spectators; they laugh at the tragic moments and are bored at length."
## Censorship, loss, and restoration
Santiago recounted that when a television channel that had invested in the film decided to broadcast it, the film was found to have been banned; the army was then nearly controlling the country, and the film was banned by military forces as subversive about five years after its release. Eight reels of the original negative were stolen from the laboratory, so no new print could be made. Around 2000, with Pierre André Boutang and the Arte channel, the film was restored.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/) A contemporary account states that in 1978, during the military dictatorship, eight reels of the original negative were stolen from the Alex laboratories in Buenos Aires.[12](https://bilbaomuseoa.eus/pdf/historiasdelcine/7-INVASION_CAST.pdf) A viable 35 mm print was rediscovered in 2004, at which point the film was hailed as a lost masterpiece and read as an uncanny prediction of the [Dirty War](https://www.edgepedia.org/dirty-war); a French critic writing ten years after the release listed things he had seen in those years, such as stadiums used as prisons in Argentina, Chile, and Korea, and said, "I saw all those things in 1969, in a film called Invasión."[13](https://letterboxd.com/gdw/film/invasion-1969/) • [3](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/)
## Reception and standing
The film placed 38th in a 2000 ranking of the top 100 Argentine films conducted by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken.[1](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Invasi%C3%B3n?hl=en_US&id=D1F696C8581EA161MV) In the 2022 Encuesta de Cine Argentino, organized by the magazines La vida útil, Taipei, and La tierra quema and presented at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, 546 voters placed *Invasión* second with 136 votes, behind Lucrecia Martel's *La Ciénaga* (224 votes) and ahead of *Tiempo de revancha* (124).[4](https://encuestadecineargentino.com/) • [14](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/festival-de-mar-del-plata-2022-se-eligieron-las-100-mejores-peliculas-de-la-historia-del-cine-nid11112022/)
The film has been analyzed as political science fiction: an academic study reads its dystopian tones, alienating landscape, and unstoppable invaders through Burke's negative sublime and Kant's account of the sublime, arguing that its dystopian tropes cross into horror to comment on politics and history.[15](https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/alambique/vol2/iss1/4/) Reviewers have emphasized its deliberate ambiguity: the invaders look like ordinary human beings, the purpose of the war is never explained, and each resistance member knows only a small part of the puzzle.[16](https://eternalitytan.com/2020/12/27/invasion-1969/) • [17](https://theory-practice.sydney.edu.au/2023/07/invasion/)
*Invasión* is the first part of an informal trilogy Santiago completed late: *Las veredas de Saturno* (1986), co-written with [Juan José Saer](https://www.edgepedia.org/juan-jose-saer), and *El cielo de Centauro* (2015), co-written with Mariano Llinás.[18](https://revistaguay.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/index.php/2019/10/31/invasion-de-hugo-santiago/) As of recent listings the film is not available on streaming services in the United States; it was last available on MUBI from September 2020 to September 2021.[19](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/invasion-1969)
## References
1. [Invasión – Movies on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Invasi%C3%B3n?hl=en_US&id=D1F696C8581EA161MV)
2. [Invasión (1969), Cine Nacional](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/invasion)
3. [NYFF Spotlight: Invasión, Film Society of Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/nyff-spotlight-invasion/)
4. [Encuesta de cine argentino](https://encuestadecineargentino.com/)
5. [Invasión: la obra maestra del cine argentino, La Nación](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/invasion-la-obra-maestra-del-cine-argentino-del-fracaso-a-la-estatura-mitica-nid2284229/)
6. [INVASIÓN, Viennale](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/invasi-n)
7. [a propósito, LIBRE n°1](https://www.in-cubadora.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/LIBRE_n1.pdf)
8. [Invasión, Buenos Aires Ciudad](https://buenosaires.gob.ar/gcaba_historico/usinadelarte/invasion)
9. [Invasion, Film Society of Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/invasion/)
10. [El regreso a la ciudad imaginaria, ADF](https://adfcine.org/el-regreso-a-la-ciudad-imaginaria/)
11. [La otra Invasión (Hugo Santiago, 1969), QuintaDimension](https://www.quintadimension.com/node/65)
12. [Invasión, Historias del Cine, Bilbao Museoa](https://bilbaomuseoa.eus/pdf/historiasdelcine/7-INVASION_CAST.pdf)
13. [Invasion review by Graham Williamson, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/gdw/film/invasion-1969/)
14. [Festival de Mar del Plata 2022: se eligieron las 100 mejores películas, La Nación](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/festival-de-mar-del-plata-2022-se-eligieron-las-100-mejores-peliculas-de-la-historia-del-cine-nid11112022/)
15. [Cornejo, Yvonne F. (2014). Fear, Estrangement and the Sublime Moment in Hugo Santiago's Invasión, Alambique](https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/alambique/vol2/iss1/4/)
16. [Invasion (1969), Eternality Tan](https://eternalitytan.com/2020/12/27/invasion-1969/)
17. [Invasión, Political theory and practice](https://theory-practice.sydney.edu.au/2023/07/invasion/)
18. [Invasión, de Hugo Santiago, Revista GUAY, UNLP](https://revistaguay.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/index.php/2019/10/31/invasion-de-hugo-santiago/)
19. [Invasion (1969) streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/invasion-1969)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license