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This interesting and colorful film has been unseeded for more than five years and deserves an upgrade IMnHO. A Bolivia-Cuba-Argentina coproduction with Ibermedia help and several film institutions, it was the Official submission of Bolivia for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category of the 78th Academy Awards in 2006… not that it matters that much.Read More »
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Más allá del olvido (Beyond Oblivion) is one of the best films made in Argentina and the best Hugo del Carril directed. Based on the novel Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach, this melodrama tells the story of Fernando (del Carril) that cannot get over the premature death of his beloved wife Blanca, so he decides to embark on an extended trip to Paris. There, he meets Monica (Laura Hidalgo), in every way an exact duplicate of his late wife, except that she’s a brazen woman of the streets. No matter; Fernando is soon hopelessly in love and intent on bringing her back home and making her into the woman she’s supposed to be; for her part, Monica imagines that she may have stumbled upon a very good deal.Read More »
When, after several arguments, adopted child Polo is placed with another family, power couple Gastón and Ema’s relationship is put under serious pressure. This also threatens the modern dance collective they are leading members of – he is the choreographer, she the lead dancer. Platinum blonde Ema refuses to let it go, and comes up with a master plan to get Polo back. Armed with a flamethrower and helped by her best friends, she labours day and night to reunite her family.Read More »
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Set in ’50s Spain, a young man (Sanz) leaves the army and looks for a job so he and his fiancée (Verdu) can get married. He rents a room from a widow (Abril), and shortly begins a torrid affair with her. The fiancée figures it out and decides to win him back by offering herself to him and taking him to meet her family. Ultimately he has to make a decision. Based on a true story.Read More »
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Montevideo, Uruguay. In this comedic drama, Elisa, 27, dreams of opening her own hairdressing salon in one of the rich districts of the Uruguayan capital. A bit of a rebel, one day Elisa moves out of her mother’s house with her two children and breaks up with Garcia, her boss and lover who has infuriated her by not wanting to get married. So, in the space of twenty-four hours, Elisa finds herself without a roof over her head, without a man, without a job and without money. Her best friend Loulou finds her a job – in the brothel run by Dona Jacqueline. And without really being aware of it, Elisa slides into prostitution, which leads her to Barcelona. She falls in love, she is exploited, she gets involved in transvestite gang wars, and meanwhile just dreams of earning enough money for her little beauty salon back home.Read More »
Matanzas, Cuba, 1913. Two young people who are in love communicate through letters written by penman. When the young man leaves town, to become a pilot, the girl discovers she is really in love with the one who wrote the letters.Read More »
Part 3 of the series preceded by Memoria del saqueo & La dignidad de los nadies, and followed by La tierra sublevada.
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Two years ago I very favorably reviewed the Argentinian documentarian Fernando E. Solanas’ Dignity of the Nobodies, shown at the 2006 SFIFF. This new work by Solanas deals with exploitation of his country from outside and how Argentina can get out from under that and become a strong, rich, independent country. My heading for Dignity was “Chaotic and grainy, but for some of us, essential viewing.” This one isn’t so grainy, and it’s still essential.Read More »
A couple deals with the aftermath of an adoption that goes awry as their household falls apart.Read More »
In the 13th century there existed a legion of evil knights known as the Templars, who quested for eternal life by drinking human blood and committing sacrifices. Executed for their unholy deeds, the Templars bodies were left out for the crows to peck out their eyes. Now, in modern day Portugal, a group of people stumble on the Templars abandoned monastery, reviving their rotting corpses to terrorize the land.Read More »