Although science fiction is not a genre often associated with Argentine cinema, there are still a significant number of works produced in the country, particularly over the last three decades, that can be classified as such (see Paz 2008). Fernando Spiner directed two of these. The first is La Sonambula (The Sleepwalker, 1998), a dystopian tale set in a post-apocalyptic Argentina in which a totalitarian government has found a way to manipulate and control the memories of Argentine citizens, and which is probably the Argentinian science fiction film that has been most widely discussed in academia (see Hernández Celiz 2003; Cuarterolo 2007; Kantaris 2007; Paz 2011). The same cannot be said of Spiner's second film, Adios Querida Luna (Goodbye Dear Moon, 2005), which has largely been neglected by critics and scholars. However, the film is quite interesting in a number of ways, and it is also exceptional in the sense that it is the only Argentine science fiction film to be set entirely in outer space. This chapter explores Goodbye Dear Moon, showing how it can be read as an account of political trauma in a globalized, postcolonial context—particularly the trauma generated by the neo-liberal reforms implemented in Argentina throughout the nineties. Annette Kuhn has spoken of the cultural instrumentality of science fiction film and highlighted the genre's capacity to express social tensions and anxieties (1990). In this spirit, I demonstrate how the tensions and dichotomies that marked Argentine politics during the 1990s— between center and periphery, global and local identities, international and regional cultures—are reflected in Goodbye Dear Moon's political discourse. In addition, I propose that the theoretical perspective that best accounts for the film's discourse is that of hybridity and hybridization, as developed by Homi Bhabha and, in particular, Néstor García Canclini. This framework helps to understand how the film, though relying on the international tropes of science fiction cinema, is also critical of the current postcolonial and globalized world order that Argentina, like all Latin-American countries, must negotiate in order to interact politically and economically with the rest of the world.

First, it is pertinent to say a few words about Argentine science fiction cinema since it is not a topic with which many people are familiar, even in Argentina itself.