El abrazo partido

"Lost Embrace (El Abrazo partido)" is like a modern Sholom Aleichem story set in a Yiddishkeit neighborhood of Buenos Aires that feels very much like NYC's Lower East Side.

Here, the village full of multi-generational eccentric characters is a small mall in the middle of the city where each of a variety of Jews and other immigrants is long familiar with and tolerant of the other's idiosyncrasies and mysteries.

As played by Daniel Hendler, Ariel is an adorable slacker who thinks the solution to his ennui is to become European but ends up searching this community for his full identity and heritage -- as a Jew, as a grandson of Polish immigrants, as a mother's son, as a son of a father in Israel, as a lover, a brother, friend and Argentinian. His loving relationship with his brightly henna-haired mother as he helps out at her lingerie shop is both unusually sweet and mature and a nice counter-point to how Jewish mothers are usually portrayed.

Co-writer/director Daniel Burman uses the midrashic technique of having each question asked by the central character answered by a story, with titles appearing on screen as chapter headings. Each story is open to Talmudic-like interpretation by the participants and leads to unexpected revelations. For example, the joke from "Fiddler in the Roof" of traders arguing about whether it was a mule or a donkey is here an ongoing feud about whether it was in pesos or dollars.

While his quest greatly impacts the others he questions as each makes important changes in habits, it is a bit confusing that the more Ariel gradually learns about his history and just how entwined he is in his community, the less he is able to assimilate it into his image of himself. He does seem to learn forgiveness or maybe at least tolerance and empathy, but the sum totaling of all the charming anecdotes is that he can accept eating a certain symbolic sandwich.

Ah, life goes on in this easy-going tale.

"Abrazo Partido" is one of the better Argentine films that have reached us. Not having a market in the USA, if they are not shown in a film festival, they are not seen at all. The director, Daniel Burman working on the screen play with Marcelo Birmajer, shows he is a talent to be reckoned with.

The movie presents us with a small mini mall that one encounters all over Buenos Aires. The story is about all the operators of the tiny shops in the complex, but focuses on the Makaroff family. Elias Creations is operated by Sonia, a woman whose husband has deserted her and the two small sons. Elias, the husband has gone to Israel to fight in one of the wars and never returned. His memory looms large, especially in the case of Ariel, who secretly loves him, but resent the abandonment of the family.

The camera work is incredible. The director gives us an excellent idea of the area of the neighborhood that at one time was dominated by the European Jews that emigrated to Argentina.

Daniel Hendler, does a wonderful job in portraying Ariel, the young man who wants to do just the opposite of what his family did: return to Poland. The family left the horrors of their country by settling in the friendly atmosphere that Argentina offered at the time. Now, during a difficult time, the grandson of the original family wants nothing of his precarious life. His dream is to try his fortune in Europe, Poland, only being the excuse for getting an European passport that only his grandmother can provide, having been born there.

Adriana Aizemberg plays the mother, Sonia. Ms. Aizemberg is wonderful as the mother who is so full of life and suddenly sees the world, as she knew it, coming apart. The grandmother, Rosita Londner, is also appealing.

A new talent emerges in Argentina.

Actually I'm from Lithuania and I was interested in this film, because from the film synopsis and credits I have learned that it shows lives of Eastern European immigrants in Argentina and Lithuania belongs to Eastern Europe. Maybe you don't know, but in first part of XX century there was big flow of emigration from Lithuania to South America. So I was very surprised, when I saw girl from Lithuania in film speaking ... Russian when film credits indicate that she is speaking ... Lithuanian. Next thing, her name is Vilna and there is no such Lithuanian name. Perhaps it was made up from name of Lithuanian capital Vilnius or misspelled from Vilma. In America, especially USA, people from Lithuania are regarded as being Russians, and for Lithuanians who were occupied bu Soviet Union it is an insult, but it does not relieve director or script writer from responsibility to check about subject depicted. Especially when film pretends to be in reality style. Cinematogapyhy and storyline is good, I do not argue, but poor analysis of the details casts doubt about reality value of this film and its pretensions to social criticism.

I have seen the movie several times now, and keep loving the very porteño lines, the perfect way in which the filmmaker captures the unique setting of Once (and a little of Abasto), as well as the tone of 2002/2003 there in Buenos Aires. The delicate portrayals of emotion and spirit are heart-rending and hilarious together. For anyone who knows Buenos Aires beyond the bullshit vended to you by some tourism operator, this film will delight you. It also has enough appeal and quirkiness to charm broader audiences that have some curiosity about slice-of-life films from elsewhere. If you have seen Berman's film "Esperando al Mesías," many people will look familiar in this movie, but it's only the actors, not the characters who are the same, and even though only a few. Like that other movie, there is also much emphasis on Argentine Jewish everyday life, but not in a way that is insular at all -- bringing in, instead, the rest of life that can combine effortlessly or create the conflicts and commotions that keep life and culture vibrant. Berman also seems to show a strength across his movies in grappling with the importance of longer-standing histories in their very simple, quotidian upcroppings. In all, an excellent film by an excellent filmmaker.

A Jewish Argentinian young man, a little confused, a little depressing; a father that went away to Israel when he was a just a baby, a mother that seems to be living in a fantasy world, a polish grandmother who thinks that "there in Europe they want to kill all the jews", a brother who has sort of an export-import business in which he sells all kind of useless stuff, a lover married to an old man, a commercial gallery full of weirdos ... AND TONS OF Argentinian SARCASM!

Lively dialogues, the Argentinian verbal-diarrhoea which is present in every sequence, the innate naturalness of Argentinian actors, and a filming style pretty similar to latest north-European cinema, Von Trier, the DOGMA manifesto, and all that ... That's (maybe) the weakest point of "El Abrazo Partido": too much camera movement, so much that in some sequences it gets a little annoying. (I'm not very in favour on making a whole movie with the camera on your shoulder).

In short: a film about ordinary people, plenty of Argentinian sacastic humour.

My rate: 7/10