Un posto nel mondo

After having seen Aristarain's excellent drama `Martín (Hache)' (1997) (qv) a few months ago, I was rather looking forward to this film coming up somewhere – anywhere – sooner or later, as I missed it ten years ago ……. I have also commented recently on `Las Huellas Borradas' (1999) (qv) with Federico Luppi, directed by Enrique Gabriel. You might think that seeing so much of this Argentinian actor in a comparatively short period of time would turn out a little tedious, if not boring. However he does have that attractively noble way of holding the screen, such that one tends to warm to him and look forward to the next time a film of his comes out. Again, Aristarain falls back on Cecilia Roth, an actress who always pleases me, and nowhere better than in `Martín (Hache)'. For `Un Lugar en el Mundo' (A Little Place in the World) Aristarain adds the Spanish actor José Sacristán, who, in years gone by, only made rather comical – sic – appearances in third rate highly forgettable films, but recently has been in a number of more serious rôles. The two young actors played natural, clean interpretations, very wholesome. Good directing here, especially.

Aristarain takes a story – his own very often – and knows what to do with it. His stories are very human, such that it is not difficult to really get in there with the characters, and in this film there is no exception to this rule. Interesting to note that the main theme touches on the same as in Gabriel's film seven years later up in the mountains of Asturias and León.

Lost somewhere in the middle of the great expanses of nowhere, but in fact is the province of San Luis to the west of Buenos Aires, just north of the true `pampa', some people play out their lives on the losing side in `a little place in the world'. The juxtaposition of the various characters is echoed by scenes of a horse-drawn trap-cart racing against a powerful diesel locomotive, as well as appearances by a late-fifties looking automobile.

Whereas `Martín (Hache)' is unquestionably a Hispano-Argentinian production, `Un Lugar en el Mundo' is almost totally Argentinian; Spanish and Uruguayan participation is minimal, apart from the presence of Sacristán as one of the actors. Aristarain is evidently the lance-point of contemporary Argentinian cinema production, and with this carefully toned story he does justice not only to his reputation and his actors' but also to Argentina itself. That is indeed a very worthy consideration.

It is not so often that one comes across a film whose every frame, every scene is magnificent. As it speaks about ordinary people with extraordinary will power to change things, Argentinian director Adolfo Aristarain's "A place in the world" can be considered a masterpiece as it is a film made with utmost honesty. The theme of good versus bad is handled by a luminary of talented actors namely Federico Luppi, Cecilia Roth and Jose Sacristan. They play roles of strong characters who have the ability to remain apolitical while harboring implicit political ideologies. Apart from some shots of urban locations, the entire film has been shot in a small but picturesque location. The notion of honesty is disappearing fast in modern times but this film shows its usefulness by showing how a young boy returns an important sum of money received as tip merely for not having earned it. The greatest reason why one should watch this film is that Adolfo Aristarain illustrates how a man's place in the world would be made only when men stop exploiting other men for their selfish motives.

Interesting, thoughtful mix of two genres – a coming of age film that's sweet, nice, (if occasionally a touch sappy), and a deeply moving, complex political morality play about the price one pays for trying to live by one's ideals.

Two leftists, almost killed by the Argentine generals, raise their son in the backwoods, trying to help organize the people there against the local land baron.

Into their lives comes a charismatic, sympathetic, but cynical geologist, unhappily working for the land owner, but unable to buy into his new friends' idealism, leading to all sorts of emotional and plot complexities.

I'd like to re-see this, and I could imagine rating it even higher, but the over the top score, and few more clichéd elements stopped me from really flipping out for it, while still finding it a solid, strong, thought-proving film.

Adolfo Aristarain's Un lugar en el mundo is influenced by westerns. An influence articulated in the use of horses, the settings, and the often wide shots that capture the landscapes. The movie illustrates the difficulties haunting people in exile, dreams of a better life elsewhere, and the feeling of belonging to a place that became part of an individual's identity in a coming-of-age that follows Ernesto, played by Gaston Batyi, who returns to the town he called home and awakens memories of a time past that still resonate with him. The impact those years had in his life, how they marked him, is the reason for his coming back and the telling of his story as a twelve-year-old teen. Life back then was with Mario and Ana, his parents, living in a remote valley after fleeing Buenos Aires due to the Argentinian dictatorship of those years.

The movie is engaging from the start. There is an approach in the dynamics and the rules of the world Aristrarain constructs that successfully connects with you. Dialogue is the strongest aspect of the movie, and it isn't a casualty considering Aristarain's idea of dialogue as something immanent to cinematic lyricism, something akin to action in itself. The characters and their idiosyncrasies are clearly defined to then build not only sympathetic interpersonal connections but also the reasons for friction. Un lugar en el mundo is thematically interested in depicting weakness versus strength, social classes articulating power as a political weapon. Mario, played by Federico Luppi, is an idealist union worker on a crusade to stop capitalists' abusive economic conditions against workers like him. This idealism is also found in other characters of the movie in their articulation of potential emancipatory escapes to a reality that finds them unsatisfied. They all have unhealed wounds and are marked by the past. This is the reason for the multidimensionality of Aristarain's feature. There are many layers to the story, some political about the years of the National Reorganization Process, the last Argentinian military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983, and some religious about the role of religion as an institution and in an individual's life.

Adolfo Aristarain's Un lugar en el mundo is an entertaining and well told story whose message, while not symbolic, might not be completely at surface for audiences to fully grasp without context. This is not accidental considering the situation Argentina went through in the seventies and eighties with a dictatorship banning artistic freedom.

Up until the 1980s, films from Argentina were heavily censored by their rightist government and films critical of the system were unheard of in this country. However, when this government fell, many films critical of this old system began to proliferate and the most famous of these internationally was "The Official Story"--which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. "A Place in the World" debuted a few years later but was not submitted by the Argentines for this award--and so the filmmakers tried submitting it was a Uruguayan film! Later, the film was disqualified, since it WAS from Argentina and was about the country--a very odd footnote, as it's only one of two films every removed from consideration after submitted to the Academy.

When you watch "A Place in the World", you might not see that the message is political--and it's not nearly as obvious as in "The Official Story". Instead of being directly critical of the federal government, the film is a socialist commentary about the abuse of the landlords and the need for the common men to work together to receive equality. In this case, a jerk rich guy is intent on buying up all the farmers' wool at HIS price...or else. However, when a German geologist arrives in town, the local agitator (the school teacher) is encouraged to fight back for what is right. At the same time, the story of a sympathetic nun is a metaphor for the traditional relationship between the church and state in the land. The story is told as a flashback from the teacher's teenage son's point of view and unfolds slowly and beautifully. The acting is nice but the direction is the star to me. Well worth seeing.