I have been going to the Audi festival of German Films for a few years now and i was able to catch this film in this years run of the fest, here in Melbourne.
I wont touch on the plot too much as it can be found in the full summary on the main page of the film. What i will say is yes the base story has been done many times, and even with that said this is still uniquely brilliant. Why? well here why i think so.... The movies director Florian Micoud Cossen who also wrote the movie with Elena von Saucken, clearly researched extensively for the writing and making of this film they captured the diverse personalities of buenos Aires city, Argentinians perfectly from the hotel desk clerk to the kiosk owner to the hard to deal with lazy woman police officer, to the talkative joking police man and family culture. This movie made a lot of us laugh in the screening as some of the things said in Spanish were so spot on as to what an Argentinian would say to family or even to a cute girl tourist you would meet at a cafe or hostel. Even a popular kids character Topo Gigio in toy form makes an appearance.
The acting is spot on and real the main character played by Jessica Schwarz is excellent, her character is not a naive character which is a trait found in actresses that have been cast in similar roles in other movies. Her character is very strong willed and independent. The acting is flawless by all in this movie it feels and looks natural not forced in any way.
This is not a fancy polished Hollywood style movie in fact from what a spokesperson said before the movie its the directors debut and from what i saw i will be keeping my eye open for further films from the director and the acting cast. This movie really leaves you thinking and as someone who knows a lot about south American and European history, one cant help but see that sometimes their are no happy endings in the lives of those affected by atrocities of political nature we can only embrace the future with hope and keep going forward no matter were we are from.
