Vlasta Lah

She worked extensively as an assistant director for the film studio Estudios San Miguel, in films by renowned directors of the time. In 1960, she made her directorial debut with Las furias, which was followed by her final film Las modelos in 1963. Little is known of Lah's life and her figure had already been largely forgotten at the time of her death, although in recent years her figure has been rescued by critics and historians.

• Name — Vlasta Lah • Birth Name — Vlasta Giulia Lah Rocchi • Born — 13 January 1913 • Birthplace — Pula, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia) • Died — 12 July 1978 • Place of death — Buenos Aires, Argentina • Education — Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Italy • Occupation — * Film director • screenwriter • assistant director • Years Active — c. 1942–1972 • Notable Works — Las furias (1960) Las modelos (1963) • Children — 1

• Illustration — Lah during the shooting of Las furias (1960) at the Lumiton studios in Buenos Aires. Vlasta Giulia Lah Rocchi was born on January 13, 1913, in Pula, then part of Austria-Hungary. Around 1930, she moved to Rome and enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia to study acting, but later switched to film directing. In 1938, Lah married her colleague Catrano Catrani and they emigrated to Buenos Aires, where they pursued a career in the Argentine film industry, which at that time was going through its "Golden Age". In the 1940s, Lah worked extensively as an assistant director at the film studio Estudios San Miguel, working with renowned directors of the time such as Mario Soffici, Carlos Schlieper, Hugo del Carril and Luis Saslavsky, among others, although she was unable to work as a director because the industry excluded women from such a role. With the crisis of the studio system and the industrial model in the 1950s, both Lah and Catrani's careers followed the path of that of most Argentine filmmakers of the time, working independently with their own projects or by occasional contracts, such as commercials. In 1960, she directed her first feature film, Las furias, which was a critical and commercial failure. Her second and final film Las modelos was released in 1963 and unlike its predecessor, it was well received by critics. There is little information about Lah's life from the period between her second film and her death, including the reasons why she did not film again. In the rest of the 1960s, she worked as a screenwriter and translator for a few film, television, and theater projects. Lah, already a forgotten figure, died at the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires in 1978, two years after her husband.

• Las furias (1960) • Las modelos (1963)

• Vlasta, el recuerdo no es eterno (2026). Documentary film by Candela Vey and Tino Pereira.