Oscar Alegre
- 2006
A fateful attempt to reconcile an estranged family relationship offers a moving portrait of love blunted by tragedy in this affecting family drama from director Leo Ricciardi. Little Santiago is traveling into the countryside with his parents when a sudden tragedy prevents the trio from extending the olive branch to the boy's curmudgeonly grandfather Juan. A man whose long and difficult life gradually turned his heart to stone, Juan soon finds the companionship of his wide-eyed grandson offering new hope for a world he previously dismissed as callous and cruel. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Brazilian director Walter Salles Jr. follows up the Golden Globe-nominated Behind the Sun with this filmed adaptation of Argentinian-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara's journals of the same name. The Motorcycle Diaries stars Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También, Amores Perros) as a young, pre-revolution Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student in 1952 traveling across South America on a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna), who co-wrote the source material. As they embark on their journey, both young men come of age and find their individual world views broadened farther than they ever expected. The Motorcycle Diaries premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, (more)
Set in an Italian restaurant in Buenos Aires, Inheritance is the story of the cantankerous Olinda (Rita Cortese), a 60-year-old Italian woman who, as the restaurant's owner, cooks whatever she wants to, regardless of what her customers want to eat. Olinda's plans to sell her home and restaurant are disrupted when Peter (Adrian Witzke) walks into her restaurant and is promptly hit over the head with a plate. As Olinda tries to make amends for the plate incident, Peter, a 24-year-old German who has come to Argentina to look for a girlfriend, forms an unlikely friendship with Olinda, one that affects not only the two of them but also various other people who frequent the restaurant, including Olinda's assistant Angel (Hector Anglada), her trusted confidant Frederico (Martin Adjemian), and Luz (Julieta Diaz), who forms more than just a friendship with Peter. Inheritance was screened at the 2002 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rita Cortese, Adrian Witzke, (more)
In this offbeat drama, Carlos (Hermes Gaido) is a young man who plays drums in a punk rock band; Carlos never knew his father, and he was adopted at an early age by a musician from Italy. Carlos gets word that his adopted dad has passed on, leaving him his most prized possession, his accordion; with the squeeze box in his hand, Carlos decides to hit the road in search of the father he never had the chance to know. As Carlos wanders the back roads of Argentina, he meets a number of eccentrics and fellow travelers, including a mysterious faith healer (Beatriz Gutierrez), a tough but good-hearted prostitute and her pimp (Laura Frigerio and Alejandro Fiore), and a priest (Oscar Alegre) who may be able to guide Carlos to his long-lost father. Toca Para Mi's soundtrack features the work of accordion master Yayo Caceres; the film was shown as part of the Forum of New Cinema collection at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hermes Gaido
- 1998
This Argentine dramatic anthology represents the second collaborative effort of Nicolas Saad, Mariano De Rosa, Salvador Roselli and Rodrigo Moreno, all graduates of Argentina's main film school, the Universidad del Cine (their first film together was the critically acclaimed Moebius). The four vignettes all take place in Buenos Aires during the state elections and offer unflinching and often unflattering looks at Argentine society as it prepares to enter the 21st century. The first episode "The Wish" centers on a poor country boy who finds success in the teeming city by participating in one of its many illegal operations. The second, "Life and Works," follows a band of Paraguayan construction workers as they try to reestablish a sense of cultural pride and community after meeting a woman whom one of them believes is the Virgin Mary. "Hard Times" follows a teenage outcast in his endeavors to romance an upper-class girl, and in "Comrades" the sound recordist of a campaigning politician finds himself unwittingly entangled in some shady business. Bad Times competed in the 1998 Turin Film Festival and was nominated for the Prize of the City of Torino. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pablo Vega, Daniel Valenzuela, (more)
