From Page to Screen

Let’s start by clearing away any banality: in the transition from words to images, it is pointless to agonize over whether the original work is better than its adaptation. A book is a book, a film or TV series is a work in images that has its own dignity and whose artistic value follows its own specific standards. This page aims to highlight the possibility of a double aesthetic experience based on the reading of L’Eternaute, a fabulous Argentine graphic novel written and serialized between 1957 and 1959 by the writer Hector Oesterheld and the artist Francisco Solano López.

A gripping story set almost 70 years ago, it recounts the resistance of a group of friends from Buenos Aires in the face of an alien invasion, the destruction of the city, and the attempts of humans to preserve the welfare, civilization, and peace they had built.

As often happens with genre stories (horror and science fiction above all, true mirrors of contemporary society), the plot here is emblematic of many human invasions that would strike numerous Latin American countries in the following years (primarily Argentina, with the military dictatorship and its desaparecidos, among whom, tragically, were Oesterheld himself and his family) and continues to resonate today from Eastern Europe to the Middle East.

Decades later, a television production takes on the challenge of bringing the story into the present day. While remaining largely faithful to the original, it features a solid artistic level guaranteed by the fact that it is an Argentine production, directed by Bruno Stagnaro and starring Ricardo Darín, the most recognized face of a cinema that, if it survives the cuts of Milei, will continue its revival of recent years (Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella impressed cinephiles at festivals around the world).

A six-episode story (available on Netflix) that captivates both the readers of the time and a new audience, who will likely return to the book. Two different modes of enjoyment to experience, following the flow of pages and/or moving scenes. The power of stories, the allure of images.


NP June/July 2025
Davide Bracco