Argentina

Part 3 of the series preceded by Memoria del saqueo & La dignidad de los nadies, and followed by La tierra sublevada.

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Two years ago I very favorably reviewed the Argentinian documentarian Fernando E. Solanas’ Dignity of the Nobodies, shown at the 2006 SFIFF. This new work by Solanas deals with exploitation of his country from outside and how Argentina can get out from under that and become a strong, rich, independent country. My heading for Dignity was “Chaotic and grainy, but for some of us, essential viewing.” This one isn’t so grainy, and it’s still essential.Read More »

“Memoria del saqueo” – literally, “Memory of the looting”, but it’s worth stopping here for a second because there’s an intention there that’s lost in translation. During the 2001 crisis, sensationalist media loved to show images of common looting taking place (people taking stuff out of supermarkets – if it’s a big TV, all the better). The title of the film subverts this common usage of the word “looting” in this context, to direct it to the systematic looting of the national riches by the ruling classes, as explained below.

Part of a sequence of four documentaries: Memoria del saqueo, La dignidad de los nadies, Argentina latente and La tierra sublevada.Read More »

A sailor, Farrel, leaves his ship and begins a lengthy journey to wintry Tierra del Fuego’s interior, to an isolated village and family that he hasn’t seen in years. The route seems familiar to him, and we gradually piece together his relationship with the people and community he finds there. From the opening sequences on Farrel’s ship, to the spectacular harshness of his destination, Alonso is meticulous in mapping the sights and sounds of the landscape and Farrel’s personal journey into the past.Read More »

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A minimalist deadpan comedy involving drifting characters and objects, this film focuses on Silvia Prieto, a rather unexceptional young woman who on her 27th birthday resolves to make some changes in her life — changes that bring out a few eccentricities. When she discovers that there are other women who share her name, she develops a bizarre obsession with the “other” Silvia Prieto, an obsession that involves unraveling the riddle of her own identity. Silvia Prieto is a meditation on what it means, or doesn’t mean, to be yourself. —Anthology Film ArchivesRead More »

Alejandro is a taxi driver about thirty- five years is suddenly in the midst of separations, violent weather changes, sudden wealth and characters who want to return to Argentina.Read More »

Argentinean filmmaker Edgardo Cozarinsky’s 2005 feature Night Watch (or Ronda Nocturna) is a searing, scorching character study of Victor (Gonzalo Heredia), a young hustler dealing and pimping on the streets of Buenos Aires, with a calm demeanor that masks a nasty, virulent temper. When a series of external threats — including an attempted homicide and a broken affair — rob Victor of his bearings, he must suddenly reassess his values and priorities by taking a long, difficult journey into the dark night of his own soul. Night Watch co-stars Rafael Ferro and Moro Anghileri. Cozarinsky wrote the original script.Read More »

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La Raulito is marginalized and feels that all of her actions are called into question but cannot understand why. Is it possible that she represents something that everyone fears? (“There are tomboys… but what was that that just passed by”, people say). In any case it is curious that the places where la Raulito encounters a single friend (María Vaner) should be a cabaret [rather than ???] in jail or in her home which is dominated by an abusive husband? What the film stresses again and again is that there is no place for la Raulito in a society that imposes strict [gender] roles. Toward this end, Murúa constantly undermines any definite characterization of the sexual identity of his protagonist… a decision that respects her transgressive, defiant conditionRead More »

SYNOPSIS
One early morning, at the beginning of a very hot summer, Mariano, a 17-year-old teenager, returns home, jumps into the pool and does some laps with a stopwatch. Then he gets out and mows the lawn, where he accidentally cuts the mower’s power cord when he runs over it. Set on fixing it, he goes to find tools but stumbles across a gun that he brings back to his room to shoot himself twice. Read More »

Letterboxd wrote:
A young teen has been raised by a despotic mother overcome with religious zeal and a father who rules over the household with a heavy, iron hand. Forcibly kept innocent of the sexual nuances of some adult relationships, she is not too clear on her rights, his intentions, or the consequences when her father’s best friend starts to lust after her.Read More »