Christina Banegas Movies

A pair of childhood friends find that their bond has not weakened with the passing of years in this affecting drama from filmmaker Daniel Barone. For nearly a decade, Jaoquin (Adrian Suar) has suffered from depression, but when his childhood friend Mara (Leticia Brédice) returns home after eight years away, the clouds soon begin to part for Jaoquin. As the old friends share memories of the past and visit the place where time seemed to stop for them as children, an old bond once again grows strong and the caring friends take solace in the familiarity of their surroundings. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Lots of people love animals, but one man takes his fondness for a sheep beyond the boundaries of what's acceptable at your neighborhood petting zoo in this darkly absurd comedy. Alberto (Carlos Roffe) is a wealthy man whose nearly three-decade marriage to Natalie (Cristina Banegas) has run out of gas. While puttering around his summer estate, Alberto spies a sheep being led through the meadow by his caretaker, Miranda (Pepe Monje). Alberto is immediately infatuated with the sheep, and asks Miranda to lock her up in the barn near the house. Naming the ewe "Fanny," Alberto soon falls in love with the animal -- and begins expressing his affections physically. As it turns out, Miranda also has cast a lustful eye on the sheep, but Alberto genuinely loves Fanny, and even imagines that the sheep is talking to him, though it still sounds like baa-ing to everyone else. Slipping past eccentricity into madness, Alberto decides no one can have Fanny but him -- not Miranda, and certainly not that ram grazing nearby -- and he hires a preacher to marry them after he divorces Natalie. Alberto discovers not everyone is accepting of his new "bride," and Alberto responds to those who cannot celebrate their love with violence and murder. Animalada was shown in competition at the 2001 Buenos Aires Independent Cinema Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Argentina's own Eva Peron gets an Argentine film biography in this production. For a woman who conducted her life with the bold strokes of grand opera, this effort to depict her human dimension rather than her mythical qualities might not have won her personal approval, but it offers a useful counterpoint to the musical play Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, which was filmed at about the same time as this movie. Eva Peron was the beautiful illegitimate daughter of a rural landlord and a seamstress. She ran away to Buenos Aires when she was 15 with the help of her lover, a traveling singer. Once in the Argentine capital, she did everything in her power to become a prominent performer. A woman of tremendous intelligence, courage, cunning and guile, she reportedly lacked certain essential assets necessary for stage stardom such as native acting talent. However, her good looks and indomitable will took her a long way toward her goal. Then, in 1944, she met Juan Peron, an army officer on the rise in the Argentine government. Together, they formed a winning team, and with her help, Juan Peron became the President of Argentina. It is during Peron's first presidency that Eva strode from the pages of history into the realms of mythology. With an impeccable sense of drama, she combined her untiring and passionate advocacy for the poor with an unbridled contempt for the pretensions of the moneyed classes. Among her lasting and noteworthy accomplishments was winning the right to vote for Argentine women. Then, at the height of her power and influence, she died of uterine cancer. But despite the ravages of the illness, Peron maintained her public image and died with grace and dignity. While there is enough drama in her story to serve as the basis for countless movies, this one is of particular interest because it is by her countrymen. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi