Omero Antonutti Movies

Guerilla wars against the major powers have been a factor in Central American politics for a long time. This biographical drama is based on the life of Nicaragua's prototypical 20th century guerilla, Augusto C. Sandino (born as Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino). His name and life were the inspiration for the anti-U.S. forces in that country fifty years after his death: they called themselves the Sandanistas. It is helpful to remember, and this movie demonstrates, that the U.S. military has been actively involved with the domestic politics of Nicaragua many times in this century, most notably during the 1912 invasion which resulted in over twenty continuous years of U.S. military intervention. In the story, Sandino loves two women: his wife, who remains at home, and his warlike mistress, a guerilla who accompanies him into the jungle. He has a tendency (common at the time) of wanting to trust politicians. As a result, he was betrayed by Anastasio Somoza in 1933, and vanished from sight. Somoza soon became the sole ruler of Nicaragua (from 1936 to 1956). The free-thinking rebel, who renamed himself Augusto César Sandino in the late 1920s, identified strongly with the indios or indigenous people of the region, and proposed a political agenda under which the countries of the Central America would unite against European exploitation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

El Sur (The South) is the story of Estrella (Iciar Bollain), a little girl from Southern Spain who has been uprooted to the North. Estrella maintains a sentimentalized attachment to the region of her birth, an attachment manifested in her love for her father (Omero Antonutti). The girl's rose-colored memories are shattered when she learns that her beloved dad once carried on affair with a Southern woman-and that the flames of passion still smolder within him. This Spanish/Argentinian coproduction was filmed on location in Madrid, Navarre, Vittoria, and Zamora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Tuscan lore, the evening of August 10th is la notte di san lorenzo (the night of the shooting stars). Each of these stars is believed to grant one wish. In this celebrated film by Italy's Taviani brothers, a woman asks for the words to tell her son about that same night during the last days of World War II. The Nazis occupied Italy and the fascists had mined her small Tuscan village of San Martino. Skeptical of the fascists' promise that all peasants will be safe in San Martino's cathedral, a group of villagers opt to leave and search for the Italian partisans and advancing American forces. Among those to depart is the woman, then only six years old. La Notte di San Lorenzo is the story of the villagers' remarkable exodus, the fate of those left behind, and the partisan struggle against fascism -- lyrically intertwined with their thoughts, loves, fears, and memories, as well as the fantasies of a young girl experiencing the tragedy she perceives to be her greatest adventure. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

Antonio (Santiago Alonso) has been puzzled by a number of events which happened over a short period of time during a summer vacation outside of Madrid a decade earlier. They all concerned the family and household of a man he only knew as "the Nazi." With some persistence in pestering his family, a lot of memory work (seen as flashbacks in the film) and some plain old footwork, he pieces together the events of that time and finally comes to understand what really happened. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this drama, Mary (Ava Gardner) returns to her small town after she becomes a success in the city. Meeting up with her old love, Kenny (George Raft), she discovers that he is still the unambitious, lazy man he was when she left, and she begins an affair with nightclub owner Lew Lentz (Tom Conway). When a jealous rivalry arises between Lew and Kenny, the results could be deadly. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide