Aida Bortnik Movies

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 historical drama based on Carlos Fuentes' novel, Harriet Winslow (Jane Fonda) is a naive woman who, hoping to broaden her horizons, accepts a job as a governess in Mexico in 1913. However, Harriet unknowingly finds herself thrown into the middle of the Mexican revolution, where she attracts the attentions of two very different men: an elderly American gentleman (Gregory Peck) who has come to Mexico to die, and Tomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits), a general with Pancho Villa's army of rebels who is fighting for the freedom of his people. The American's attraction to Harriet is more intellectual (though he unmistakably finds her attractive), while Arroyo holds a greater romantic allure to Harriet, who is still a stranger to the ways of love. In time, she gains a new sense of freedom and self-knowledge in Mexico, but while the victories of Villa's forces bring out an unseemly arrogance in Arroyo, Harriet makes a surprising discovery about the Old Gringo -- that he is in fact the fabled author Ambrose Bierce, who vanished years before. Old Gringo was the first American film for director Luis Puenzo, and the next-to-last for star Jane Fonda. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A turbulent era in Argentine politics is highlighted in this well-wrought drama, set in Buenos Aires at the end of 1945, about Clara (Graciela Borges), a young, half-Jewish woman awakening to the reasons behind the political conflicts of her time and place. Clara's father was a Communist who fought the Nazis in Argentina and possessed a list of the top Nazi exiles and their contacts. Through a former lover, Clara -- a successful broadcast journalist -- begins to see her Jewish roots (and the leftists) in a whole new light. Meanwhile, the political storms sweeping through Argentina are setting the stage for the Peronist government to come. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An Argentine ex-patriot has been away working in New York for 18 years, and now he is back home in Buenos Aires to close down a factory belonging to the parent company that employs him in the U.S. His former friends were once all dedicated to bringing about social reforms, and he is curious to see what has happened to them in the time that he has been away. The result is disheartening -- it appears that most of his friends did not realize their ideals, and some seem to have given up trying. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The small events that make up the daily life of a 13-year-old boy and the elderly carousel-operator he lives with are the basis for this touching story based on the novel Alrededor de la Jaula by Jaroldo Conti. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Life has lost its savor for the middle-aged widower in this drama. He keeps on at his job, but his grown children are a puzzle to him. One of his sons treats him with surly indifference when he sees him, which isn't often. The other son, it is increasingly clear, is a homosexual. However, when he begins an affair with a new employee in his office, a girl young enough to be his daughter, he experiences a brief sunny interlude. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide