FILM ' ETERNAUT'S ' FIRE : ARGENTINE CINEMA HONOURS

NETFLIX's ' Eternaut ' depicts fight against tyranny. Actor Ricardo Darin hopes that the series will boost Argentine cinema.

Survival through teamwork : It's a tale as old as time with particular resonance today, says Argentine actor Ricardo Darin of his latest project '' The Eternaut '', which hit Netflix on Wednesday, reported AFP.

Based on a 1950s comic with iconic status in the South American country, the sci-fi series tells the story of a mysterious, toxic snowfall that precedes an alien invasion of Buenos Aires.

More elementally, it is about ordinary people with few resources and no special powers who collectively stare down a totalitarian threat, Darin, 68, told AFP in an interview.

'' The communities that managed to survive were those that stood shoulder to shoulder, defended themselves, and did not care only about what happened to them individually,'' he said of the storyline.

Directed and scripted by Argentina's Bruno Stagnaro, The Eternaut is based on the comic by the same name serialised by writer Hector Oesterheld and illustrator Francisco Solano Lopez between 1957 and 1959.

Oesterheld took the series up again in the 1960s, with ever-more political overtones that are believed to have contributed to his kidnapping in 1977 under Argentina's military dictatorship.

He was never heard from again, nor were his four daughters and three sons-in-law, of whom figure among the estimated 30,000 people listed ''disappeared'' by agents of the dictatorship, according to rights groups.

Darin, known for his roles in the films Nine Queens, Wild Tales, and The Secret in Their Eyes - which won the Oscar for best international feature in 2010 - said he was scared at first of playing Juan Salvo, the resistance hero in The Eternaut.

He had no background in science fiction and had to do demanding stunts.

'' Physically it was very, very hard work,'' the actor said.

'' Nothing like this has ever been done here, '' said Darin of the project.

The World Students Society thanks The Express Tribune.