Watch the greatest films to come from Argentina, Latin America's powerhouse of film. Look at our guide a comphrehensive A-Z of the famous Argentine film industry, the largest in South America.
There are comedies, love stories, dramas and documentaries, there is something for everyone and all the films have English subtitles and are great for people learning Spanish or interested in Latino Culture.
Apasionados (2002)
Uma
(Natalia Verbeke) lives in the city of Buenos Aires with her friend Roberto,
who happens to be homosexual. She works as a flight attendant, and her job lets
her travel all around the world and live and independent life without commitments.
But she a has a dream to fulfill, being a mother. Since she can't find the perfect
man, thanks to her job, she decides to look for a sperm donor in different parts
of world, but what she is looking for her child's father can't be found anywhere
in the sperm banks.
After being desperate and tired of
not being able to complete her goal, she decides to look for the perfect man
that has all the requirements she wants in a father, to leave her pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10
Abrígate (2008)
Valeria has changed her native Buenos Aires for Betanzos, a town in Galicia where her family comes from. Eccentric, dreamer and funny, in her 25 she finds herself in the most surreal love crossroads of her life: after the sudden death of her mature and attractive lover, she falls in love with Marcelo, the son of the deceased. They enjoy with their friends the little joys of life, laugh the sorrows and daydream about having a different life (maybe inspired by the posters from Paris that decorate the hairdresser’s…). A beautiful story about the universal desire of finding the own identity, decode the collective one and live through love in a land that is every bit as good as Paris boulevards.
Awards: 3 Wins
& IMDB Rating: 5.1/10
Bombón: El Perro (2004)
Life
is no bed of roses for 52-year-old Juan "Coco" Villegas. He, who has
been a gas station attendant for twenty years in Patagonia, finds himself jobless
overnight. He first tries to survive by selling knives of his own making, but with very little luck.
But business is bad and he can't
find real work. One day though, after fixing a vehicle on a farm, he gets paid
by means of a ... beautiful Argentinian watch-dog!
From this blessed day on, things
start shaping well at last...
José
is an ageing anarchist who decides to get even with the
corporation that stole 15,344$ from his family 18 years
ago. When confronted by the yuppie manager, Pedro Mendoza,
José threatens to kill himself and orders him to
hand in the requested amount of money. In the ensuing chaos,
Pedro stumbles upon a drawer holding half a million dollars,
and puts it all in the bag. He then asks José to
take him hostage so that the police won't shoot them, and
both drive away successfully.
After the heist,
Pedro is confronted with a dilemma: he can't turn himself
in, because the stolen money is laundered money and he will
thus have trouble with the mafia.
Awards: 4 Wins
& IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
Cronica de una fuga (2006)
The
goalkeeper of a little-known soccer team is kidnapped by a Argentinean government
squad & sent to a detention center. After months of torture, he plots his
escape with 3 other young men. "Crónica de una Fuga" is
not only an objective journey through Argentina's past, but also an engaging
thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat.
Uruguayan director Adrian Caetano,
proves himself to be on of the leading filmmakers among the flourishing Argentinean
film industry. It is also worth
mentioning Rodrigo de la Serna's performance, who after working opposite to
Gael Garcia Bernal in "Motorcycle Diaries" managed to establish himself
as one of the most talented Latin American actor of his generation.
DEBT
is the story of a frantic pursuit: the search for the responsible for the televised
cry of hunger of Barbara Flores, an eight-year-old Argentinean girl. Buenos
Aires, Washington, the IMF, the World Bank and Davos; corruption and the international
bureaucratic lack of interest.
Using a satirical style, à
la Michael Moore but with a gentler touch, he looks into the economic collapse
of one of the world’s richest countries. His journey takes us from Buenos
Aires to Tucuman, and from Davos, Switzerland to Washington by way of Punta
del Este, Uruguay.
The overriding theme is the corruption and indifference of
the international bureaucracy.
Awards: 3 Nominations
& IMDB Rating: 7.0/10
El
Aura (2005)
Quiet,
cynic taxidermist, who suffers epilepsy attacks, is obsessed
with committing the perfect crime.
He claims that the cops
are too stupid to find out about it when it's well executed,
and that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right
way; and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic
memory and his strategic planning skills.
After he is invited
on a hunting trip away from his home, an accident gives
him the chance of his life: the possibility to commit the
perfect crime he has been waiting for.
An
authentically macho tale about the notoriously clannish and corrupt police force
of Buenos Aires (members are known as 'el Bonaerense') which follows a naive
rural recruit, trying to make good after a lapse of criminal behaviour, into
a world of graft, violence and moral mockeries.
With a tone that flits between black
humour, absurdism and grimness, this manages a somewhat unique slant on familiar
themes, while also opening a window into an arcane and troubling world of law-enforcement
in a country recently devestated by economic collapse.
A
young man is seen riding a train through Argentina, it's
clear he has no money to pay for the fare, as we watch him
taking his switch blade out when the conductor comes near
him, but this young man is no criminal; the next thing we
see him at the rear door jumping out in a remote town.
Roberto, a man with a farm in the
vicinity, discovers him at the train station, and offers
him a job in his small farm. What Felix finds
in that strange household is an abused wife and an amazingly sweet boy.
One day Chango is passed to Felix, and thus begins an uncanny
relationship between Felix and Chango. Both the young man
and the boy become almost an inseparable duo.
This
is the story of two Argentinian women on the verge of lesbian motherhood.Mora
and Roberta are desperate to have a child. With no scruples or hesitationthey
work out a plan: Roberta will seduce and have sex with Felipe, Mora’s brother.
Felipe (Javier Lombardo, ‘Roberto’ in Intimate Stories) is a hermit
who lives in Patagonia and, coincidentally enough, earns his living by artificially
inseminating turkeys. He arrives at Mora’s house with no hint of his sister’s
plot –or the fact that she has a relationship with another woman!But sure
enough, things won't go smoothly. Felipe isn’t easily seduced, and when an
unexpected visitor turns up, everyone will get more than what they havebargained
for.Colorful and wacky, with non-stop demented twists and turns.
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10
El Hijo De la Novia (2001)
At
age 42, Rafael Belvedere is having a crisis. He lives in the shadow of his father,
he feels guilty about rarely visiting his aging mother.
His ex-wife says he doesn't spend
enough time with their daughter and he has yet to make a commitment to his girlfriend.
At his lowest point, a minor heart
attack reunites him with Juan Carlos, a friend from his childhood, who helps Rafael to
reconstruct his past and to look at the present in new ways.
Awards: Nominated for Oscar. Another 26 wins & 10 nominations
& IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
El Metodo (2005)
The
story tells of seven people that have been selected among several applicants
for one final round to determine who will get an enviable, executive position
for a mysterious corporation. The seven applicants are submitted to a series
of psychological tests - known as the "Grönholm Method" - that
starts eliminating the applicants one by one. It is warned at the beginning
that one of the seven people is an employee of the corporation posing as an
applicant to evaluate the others. As the applicants are discarded, the race
for the position becomes more tense and sinister. In the end the "mole"
will be revealed and only one of them will get the desired position.
The
story tells of Jorge (Ricardo Darín), a well-known writer that writes short love stories in a magazine for young
people in order to make money.
One day he meets Laura (Soledad Villamil)
and they fall in love. But life is hard during the next twenty years. We see
how they manage to survive in the difficult days in Argentina.
The marriage is an apt description
of his life. Once full of promise as a writer, Jorge falls victim to a slow
poisoning of his morals and his heart, brought on by the corruption and political
upheavals visited upon Argentina during the twenty years the film covers.
The passionate and long love story between Rimini (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Sofia (Analia Couceyro) and especially their traumatic and even longer break-up create a series of tragic - funny - surreal - pathetic events, that bring Rimini on the verge of self destruction... almost.
Rimini finds it easy to move on, but difficult to prevent his ex wife from hounding him, or the new women in his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10
El
Resultado del Amor (2007)
Mabel
lives in the slums, she works both as party entertainment
for children and as a prostitute. At 20 years old, she meets
Martin, a lawyer who is divorcing his wife and leaving the
law chambers where he has been working for years. They feel
attracted to each other and finish faling in love.
Soon Mabel discovers
she has HIV. From then on the love of Martin for her will
make her win continuing battles against death. Mabel will
help make Martin find the meaning to life. A gritty Argentine
version of Pretty Woman...
In
1976, during the political turmoil in Argentina, two sisters
flee their country right after Natalia's politically active
boyfriend Martin disappeares; one goes to Spain and the
other to Texas.
After eight years in Spain, Natalia (Ingrid Rubio) travels
to Texas to visit her sister Elena (Valeria Bertuccelli),
who's now a suburban wife and mother.
She brings with
her their father's manuscript of his last novel. The unpublished
novel reveals the story of their family during the Argentine
dictatorship.
Using extensive
flashbacks of the sisters early years in Argentina during
the junta dictatorship, the director reveals family guilt
and suppressed resentment.
Awards: 4 Nominations
& IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
Historias Mínimas (2002)
Near the provincial town of San Julian, three vibrant characters undertake seemingly mundane journeys that turn out to be subtly life changing. A lonely, fastidious traveling salesman quests for the perfect cream cake to win the widow of his dreams. A grizzly grandfather hitchhikes to town to find his forgotten lost dog and seek forgiveness. A poor young mother hopes to win the grand prize--a microprocessor--as a contestant on a TV game show.
In the end, the three will get more or less what they set out for, but it will come to them in ways that they never expected
A
powerful Argentinean antiwar film in the tradition of American Vietnam films
such as Full Metal Jacket and Coming Home, Blessed By Fire is the story of two
young men sent to fight the 1982 war in the Falkland Islands (or as they are
known in Argentina, the Malvinas) who return home bearing the brutal scars of
war.
Twenty years after the war's end,
journalist Esteban Leguizamón (Gastón Pauls) is informed that
Alberto Vargas (Pablo Ribba), one of the men he served with, has attempted to
commit suicide after suffering from years of depression brought on by his experiences
in the war. Esteban visits the comatose Vargas at the hospital, and in a series
of flashbacks, revisits Argentina's "unwinnable war."
La Educacion
tells the story of Nicolas,(Ricardo Darin) who falls in love with two people,
Ingrid (Irene Jacob) and her seven years old son Raul.
All of them have hidden secrets and
wounds that will appear in the process of knowing each other.
This could have been a melodramatic
movie if not were for the light touches which are the trademark of the director,
and for the magical underlines that surrounds the narration.
THE
OFFICIAL STORY is the story of one woman's odyssey
from complacence to political awareness. Norma Aleandro
delivers a tour-de-force performance as Alicia Marnet de
Ibanez, a middle-class history teacher who begins to suspect
that her adopted five-year-old daughter may have been taken
from political prisoners under the military junta of the
late 70s-early 80s.
Luis Puenza's
THE OFFICIAL STORY, the whole thing is laid bare for all
the world to see...and we see it through the eyes of Alicia
(Norma Aleandro), a woman who has never questioned anything
about her life, yet finds herself questioning the very meaning
of her life in a political and personal thriller
that will keep you riveted to your seat.
Awards: Won Oscar.
Another 22 wins & 3 nominations & IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
La Niña Santa (2004)
Physicians
gather at a provincial hotel in Salta. The hotel owner, Helena, is subdued,
brittle, avoiding the calls of her ex-husband's pregnant wife. Family dysfunction
seems everywhere. Helena's daughter, Amalia, about 14, discusses vocations in
a Catholic girls group. Their teen imaginations conflate the erotic, the religious,
and the lurid. Amalia notices Dr. Jano, and he notices her. She decides to make
him her vocation, she follows him, he rubs against her in a public crowd, he's
appalled at his actions. Meanwhile, Helena believes Jano is attracted to her
even through he's married. Longing, guilt, scandal, and teen sensuality are
set to collide.
Two
half brothers meet again after being reunited by their dying father. The old
man entertains them with bizarre tales of his youth and makes awkward requests
as his "last wishes". As if this wasn’t enough to go through,
both the young men are already having a hard time coping with their own lives:
Felipe (Marcelo Mazzarello) is a theatre actor who is going through a horrible
crisis of being thought of as "cursed" and Guillermo (Gastón
Pauls) has just been dumped by his girlfriend and has to live with the drama
of getting to work on time. Both are re-united by faith (suerte).
Also starring
Paola Krum, Leticia Brédice and Julieta Cardinali.
Biographical
film about the journey and written memoir of the 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara,
who would years later become internationally known as the iconic Marxist revolutionary
"Che" Guevara. The film recounts the 1952 journey, initially by motorcycle,
across South America by Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. Guevara discovers himself transformed
by his observations of the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry and the
road presents a genuine picture of the Latin
American identity. Through the characters they encounter on the road, Guevara
and Granado learn the injustices the impoverished face and are exposed to people
they would have never encountered in their hometown.
Awards: Won Oscar. Another 26 wins
& 37 nominations & IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
No sos vos, Soy Yo (2004)
Javier
and Maria live together. Discontent with life in Argentina, they plan to migrate
to Miami in search for a better life. Since Maria has a US residency, they hastly
marry and she flies ahead. He resigns his job, sells his car and apartment,
and packs his things. On the way to the airport he receives a call from Maria,
she doesn´t want him to come over. She's confused. She's involved with
somebody else. Javier is destroyed. He's a walking ghost, constantly pestering
his friends, family and shrink about Maria, about getting her back. He goes
through a complete duel period, every stage documented in clever if not completely
original comedy.
Two
grifters - boyish, likable Juan and hard-edged, scheming Marcos - meet by chance.
Marcos, who seems to have cheated everyone he knows including his siblings,
is missing his partner, so he offers to teach Juan tricks for a day. Juan accepts
because he has some savings, but needs more to bribe a judge to release his
father from prison. Marcos gets a call from an ex-associate needing
help to sell a forged set of rare stamps, the Nine Queens, to a businessman
about to be deported (he can't take cash out of Argentina, but could take the
stamps).
When the con men have to improvise, Marcos asks Juan to use his savings
to set up the deal, is he the mark?
When
journalist Manuel Cueto is hired to type novelist Joaquín
Góñez's last book, his presence provokes an
avalanche of feelings that bring Joaquín to the edge
of emotions and memories that had lain dormant in the solitude
of the last stages of his creative life. Accustomed to years
of loneliness, Joaquín finds in the young journalist
a bridge to the forgotten years of his outh in Buenos Aires. It is to his mother Roma to whom Joaquín owes his free,
bohemian spirit and the aspirations shared with her in the
shadow of the memory of his father will awaken in Joaquín
the desire and the impatience to recover all he had, so
far, believed lost.
A
eight-year-old boy named Valentin (Noya) living with his grandmother (Maura)
in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s discovers that his family has problems that
he believes only he can solve.
Specifically, he dreams of being
reunited with his mother, who is separated from Valentin's abusive father (Agresti)
who uses him to attract new girlfriends like the attractive Leticia (Cardinali),
whom Valentin himself befriends.
Meanwhile his grandmother gets sick, and the boy tries to resolve all his family problems using his persuasion and viewpoint of life.
