Do you know Marie Langer?

This question opens Marcelo Haber , which took nine years to make. None of those interviewed seemed to have any idea – even though they were standing on the street in Puerto Madero (a district of Buenos Aires ) that bears their name. It is precisely in such cases, where it is important to bring impressive but forgotten stories back to light, that the documentary film finds its true purpose.

The screenwriters, however, opted for a hybrid approach, incorporating a fictional element into the plot. Were it not for this detail, the film could be considered excellent.

The life of Marie Langer , better known as Mimí, is so extraordinary that it requires no fictional embellishments to captivate audiences. Born on August 31, 1910, in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she grew up in a wealthy Jewish family. At the age of 25, she earned her medical degree and completed studies at the Vienna Association (Institute for Psychoanalysis).

She found the love of her life and, shortly after graduating, traveled with her husband Máximo, a military surgeon, to Spain, where the Civil War had broken out. When she wanted to return to Austria in 1937, the country had already been annexed by Germany. The couple decided to emigrate to South America, initially settling in Uruguay and a few years later in Argentina.

“ Marie Langer, Desire and Revolution ” unites the voices of those who accompanied her from her arrival in Buenos Aires – children, grandchildren, colleagues whom she influenced. In Buenos Aires, she was the only woman among the founding members of the Asociación Psicoanalítica Argentina (APA – Argentine Society for Psychoanalysis), alongside Angel Garma, Celes Cárcamo, Arnaldo Rascovsky, Enrique Pichón Riviere, and Enrique Ferrari Hardoy, of which she later became president.

In addition, she was involved in the founding of the Psychology Association and later the Group Therapy Association, in order to enable less privileged people to access psychoanalysis, which until then had been a privilege of the rich.

Her children remember a loving, present mother; her colleagues remember a woman with strong social commitment and great charisma. The film doesn't shy away from critical voices either. Marie, who had left Europe to escape fascism, experienced Peronism in Argentina as a form of Latin American fascism. Within the APA, she initially concealed her affinity for Marxism.

In 1951, she published Maternidad y sexo (Motherhood and Sex) , a work that revolutionized the view of female sexuality and motherhood—years before Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex . In it, Langer focused particularly on psychogenic sterility and used clinical material to demonstrate how cultural, social, and personal factors shape femininity. Privately, however, she followed traditional role models: she set up her practice in her own apartment so she could spend more time with her children.

At that time, psychoanalysis was still relatively uncommon, and her work was groundbreaking because it combined feminist studies with medical research. Her second major book, * La mujer: sus limitaciones y potencialidades* (Woman: Her Limits and Potentials) , published twenty years later, reflects both the pressure exerted by the Peronists and her continued commitment to women's psychology.

Her life changed after the International Psychoanalytic Congress in Rome in 1969. She resumed her Marxist stance and joined the "Plataforma Internacional" (International Platform), which questioned the ideological neutrality of psychoanalysis. In 1971, after the publication of her second book and the congress in Vienna, she resigned from the APA – convinced that an ideology-free psychoanalysis is impossible. Every therapist has a stance, whether expressed or not, and this is inevitably reflected in their work.

Her contribution to the panel discussion "Madness and Society" at the Círculo Psicoanalítico Mexicano (Mexican Psychoanalytic Circle) was enthusiastically received. These contacts led her to choose Mexico as her country of exile when, in October 1974—widowed and with four children—she was forced to leave Argentina once again. Because of her political activism, the government of María Estela Martínez de Perón had sentenced her to death.

In Mexico, she continued her tireless work, founding self-help groups for exiles, opening her home to other displaced people, and never giving up. She was invited to Cuba and spoke with Fidel Castro there – according to legend, more about cooking recipes than about revolution.

In her own words, her work in Cuba and Nicaragua gave her renewed energy. She felt a particular obligation to victims of torture; she treated many of them free of charge. Finally, she returned to Buenos Aires, the place of her greatest happiness, to die surrounded by family and friends.

Technically, the film has serious flaws: obviously produced on a shoestring budget, it mixes high-quality archive footage with poorly filmed interviews, in which sometimes only an eye or half a face can be seen.

The image quality varies between professional camera and mobile phone footage; some scenes are blurry or pixelated. More problematic is the unnecessary fictionalization, which disrupts the narrative flow without adding anything. Nevertheless, the 78 minutes are extremely entertaining – carried by the power of the story and the vivid recollections of the eyewitnesses.

The premiere took place on August 24th in the well-filled "Gaumont" cinema, as part of the screenings of the Cineclub Núcleo, an institution with a long tradition in the city.

The website marielanger.org contains the documentary's origin story, a list of interviewees, and a portrait of the director. Haber and his assistant De Martino are members of the Art-Kiné collective.

The collective focuses on film and media-related research, with an emphasis on theory, aesthetics, social and cultural practices, and the relationships between film and other arts.

Technical specifications:
Director: Marcelo Haber
Screenplay: Marcelo Haber, Belén De Martino, Horacio Legrás, Camila Silva
Production: Horacio Legrás
Year: 2024
Duration: 78 minutes