Héctor Alterio Movies

Eduardo Mignogna's comedy drama Cleopatra tells the tale of friendship between two women who need to reevaluate their lives. Cleo (Norma Aleandro) is having a mid-life crisis. Her nearly four-decades-old marriage is wilting as her husband is becoming an alcoholic after being out of work for two years. Her grown sons have little meaningful contact with her. She works as a teacher, but must sell makeup door-to-door in order to survive. Remembering her dreams of becoming an actress, she auditions for a new television show. While at the audition, she meets Sandra (Natalia Oreiro), a soap opera actress who is chaffing under the control of her manager/husband. The pair escape together and go on a road trip in which Sandra falls in love and reconciles with her family, while Cleo grows to accept where she is in life. Cleopatra was screened at the Montreal Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Directed by Juan José Jusid, Apasionados (Passionate People) follows airline stewardess Uma (Natalia Verbeke) and her desperate attempts to become pregnant. Her roommate, being homosexual, is not an option; nor are any of her co-workers or friends. It's her best friend and recent divorcée Lucia (Nancy Duplaa) who ultimately offers her own boyfriend, Nico (Pablo Echarri) as a potential candidate. Though they had planned to induce pregnancy by artificial insemination, unforeseen circumstances force them to make a baby the old-fashioned way. As Lucia begins to suspect that something is amiss, Nico's feelings for Uma become increasingly strong. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

An abandoned Uruguay community rails against Hollywood's purchase of an antique locomotive in this comedy drama from sophomore director Diego Arsuaga. Despite the locals' joy over the sale of the train, the Friends of the Railroad Association views the purchase as the selling of an important part of the town's rich history. In a last-ditch effort to sabotage the sale and keep their beloved locomotive, the group hijacks the train and attempts a daring escape to Brazil. With the police in hot pursuit, the daring feat inspires new hope in a town who lost their connection with the outside world when the train stopped running years ago. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A family wedding brings out the best and the worst in the various parties involved in this warm but pointed comedy-drama. Rafael Belvedere (Ricardo Darin) makes his living running the restaurant ran by his father, Nino (Hector Alterio), and the combination of a stressful job and familial tensions are wearing him down to a frazzle. Rafael is divorced from his wife, Sandra (Claudia Fontan), he's all but a stranger to his daughter, Vicky (Gimena Nobile), and it's been almost a year since he last paid a visit to his mother, Norma (Norma Aleandro), who is battling Alzheimer's in a retirement home. Rafael has a girlfriend, Naty (Natalia Verbeke), but after a long day of work and dealing with his father, she finds he rarely wants to do anything but watch old reruns on television. With Norma's health declining, Nino decides that he wants to renew their wedding vows and give his wife the nice church service he couldn't afford when he was younger; however, arranging the affair turns out to be far more complicated than either Rafael or Nino imagined, and the circumstances lead to some profound changes for father, son, and the rest of the family. El Hijo de la Novia was directed by Juan Jose Campanella, who in recent years has been dividing his time between helming feature films in his native Argentina and directing episodic television in America. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When the father of a young woman with a dark past falls ill and needs her help to survive, she must learn to let go of the pain and forge on into the future in this harrowing and affecting drama from filmmaker Fito Paez. For years Carmen Uranga (Celia Roth) had suffered the torture inflicted upon her under the Argentinean dictatorship. Later moving to Madrid and making ends meet by offering her body for sale, Carmen soon receives word that her father has suffered a stroke and quickly returns to Argentina to be close to her family. As the past continues to haunt her and she attempts to learn how to love again, a shocking revelation threatens to consume everything that she has ever dreamed of and send her into an irreversible spiral of despair. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Tristan Bauer directs this exploration of the highly imaginative and complex ideas of Jose Luis Borges. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A man tries to reconcile with his past before it disappears in the allegorical drama Las Huellas Borradas. Manuel (Federico Luppi) is a writer who journeys from Argentina, where he lives, to the Spanish village where he was born; word has reached him that the town will soon literally vanish, as the area is being turned into a giant reservoir. Manuel hopes to tie up some loose ends from his past, and hopes to rekindle his relationship with Virginia (Mercedes Sampietro), whom he loved as a young man. With the village's days numbered, many long-dormant rivalries have been brought back to life, as a number of people hope to settle old scores before progress eliminates their home town. Virginia also has to deal with her daughter Rosa (Elena Anaya) and her sudden rebellious streak -- she's now pregnant, and has decided to move in with her boyfriend Delfin (Sergi Calleja). Meanwhile, Manuel spends some time with his old friend Don Jose (Hector Alterio), with whom he discusses philosophy and the secrets of a town that will soon cease to exist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Carlos Naranjo Estrella writes and directs this Ecuadorian omnibus film about contemporary life with a magical edge. In "Deborah," a female piano teacher arrives in a village populated largely by women only to fall victim to slanderous rumors. In "El escritor," an aspiring novelist and college lecturer obsesses about a female ghost that haunts the Guggenheim Museum. In the final story, "Guasango," a village couple finds excitement in mysterious ways. This film was screened at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this Spanish-language crime thriller, an investigator from Buenos Aires, Argentina receives a summons from a South American businessman to spend several days in his beachside mansion. In mid-visit, the detective suddenly stumbles onto a heinous crime that prompted the entrepreneur's son to commit suicide. With time running out, the investigator must unravel the strands of the father's Machiavellian plot and pull in enough evidence to have the perpetrator arraigned ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

An unlikely pair of outlaws take to the highway and become criminal folk heroes in this satiric comedy. Jose (Hector Alterio) is a 70-year-old anarchist who deposited $15,000 in a bank 20 years ago and wants to withdraw the money; however, he doesn't have the paperwork, and the bank staff keeps giving him the runaround. So he takes drastic measures: he arrives at the bank one day with a gun, and, pointing the pistol at his head, he announces that he'll blow his brains out if he doesn't get his money. Pedro (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a 23-year-old clerk working at the bank, is unhappy with his job and his life, and he impulsively announces that Jose has taken him hostage; they end up leaving the bank with $500,000, and they hit the road with both cops and reporters following their trail. Jose and Pedro seem like an odd team at first, but friendship and respect grow between them as they travel the backroads, spending some of the money, handing some of it out to poor people along the way, and sending occasional videotaped messages to the media. They also pick up a woman named Ana (Cecilia Dopazo), whose tough demeanor is intimidating but fits the situation perfectly; Pedro soon finds himself attracted to her as she joins in their low-level crime spree. Caballos Salvajes was the debut feature from Argentinean director Marcelo Pineyro, who became one of the most acclaimed young directors in South America on the basis of this and his second film, Cenizas del Paraiso. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this straightforward drama, based on a true story, Tango (Fernan Miras) is a popular young singer in 1960s Buenos Aires. He is from the poorer classes, and is passionately committed to opposing the military government which ruled Argentina at that time. He is involved in student demonstrations and also uses his music as a form of protest. During one protest, he is arrested along with many others, and, while in jail, falls in love with one of his fellow demonstrators, a woman from the upper classes (Cecilia Dopazo). He will not yield on his convictions and will not cooperate with the police in any way. In the end, his courageous obstinacy has tragic consequences. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide