Baragiola is a deeply personal and intellectually expansive portrait of Raúl Baragiola, a physicist whose journey from Argentina’s Santa Fe province to the laboratories of the University of Virginia reveals a life shaped by curiosity, exile, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. From early fascinations with astronomy to groundbreaking discoveries in surface physics, Baragiola’s story spans continents and generations, echoing the migrations of his Italian ancestors and the ideological convictions that led him to resist Argentina’s military dictatorship in the 1970s.

 

The film moves fluidly between scientific inquiry and philosophical reflection, as Baragiola explores the limits of time, the origins of molecules in interstellar space, and the ethical dimensions of war and technology. With humility and precision, he recounts his contributions to NASA’s Cassini mission, his pioneering work on ozone generation, and his preference for intimate labs over massive collaborations. At its core, Baragiola is about the mystery of the universe—and the human drive to understand it, however fleetingly, from a small corner of the cosmos. HD|15 minutes