|
| |
Holland-based Alejandro Agresti once again turns his camera eye on his native
Argentina's recent past (the desaparecidos, victims of the '70s military junta) and
present (the irrepressibility of memory). Where his earlier films (including Love Is a Fat Woman, SFIFF 1988) favored
stylistic zeal over plot, in Secret Wedding Agresti anchors his cinematic verve
to the story. What he achieves is a deceptively simple tale of great poetic and political
resonance. Set in present-day Argentina, the film "begins with a man running naked
through the streets of Buenos Aires. He is picked up by the police who discover he's
suffering from amnesia. He is unable to remember his name and thinks the year is 1976.
Gradually, Fermin begins to piece together parts of his life: he was a bus driver, a union
agitator, picked up in 1976 and...killed? Thrown out into the world, he travels to the
country to try to find his girlfriend, Tota. He finds himself in a disturbing, at times
almost surreal world, where Tota, still waiting for him, can't recognize him, where
madness and corruption still permeate the air, and where the Church exercises an
oppressive influence. Agresti masterfully balances the emotions of a homecoming with
incisive commentary on contemporary Argentina, suggesting in effect that little has
changed, that history is indeed cyclical, doomed to repeat itself. As Fermin and Tota try
to begin a new life, they are repeatedly pulled back into events of the past."
--Piers Handling, Festival of Festivals, Toronto
Runtime: 95 minutes
Thanks to the Pacific Film Archive for the above information.

Back to Argentina
| |

Classroom
Maps & Globes

Bulletin Board Maps
Hand Painted Furniture
Accent Furniture
visit..
1-World Decor

Global Accent
Furniture

Old World Globe Bars
|