Customer Reviews

Bolivia

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Coming to this movie with no expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. It deals with the plight of a Bolivian man who is forced to leave his country, and family, in search of work in Argentina, a society that is suffering from its own economic depression. Most of the movie takes place in the café where the Bolivian immigrant has found work as a cook. The frequenters of this establishment are suffering from their own economic hardships and resent the immigrant who is willing to work for less than them.

The film is in black and white and focuses on the daily interactions that take place in the café. While there is not a lot of action, you watch the tension build as the life of one of the characters begins to fall apart and he increasingly makes the Bolivian cook the focus of his anger. The movie also touches on the issue of racism. Well done and definitely worth watching.

I was pleased to come across this dvd at the newly built Bronx Fordham branch of the NYPL. Having not been to Argentina since before the current economic crisis(1994), I was curious to view the Argentina in one of it's roughest eras in almost 2 decades. I've heard the label "Do the Right Thing" Buenos Aires style. That only partly describes it. This story DOES take place in a restaurant, similar to Sal's Famous Pizza. And it does focus on racism and prejudice in a society, much like ours, that values it's "Whiteness." Although much shorter than Spike Lee's best movie, it does bear similarities and both are very good reference points for modern ideas of racism and prejudice. The "actors" are all referred to by their real names, hence main character Freddy is actually Freddy Flores, Paraguayan/Argentine waitress Rosa is really, you guessed it, Rosa. Shot in black and white on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, it shows an Argentina just barely hanging on. Bolivian "cocinero" Freddy arrives in Buenos Aires and immediately gets hired as a cook, where the customers at the restaurant are for the most part out of work. The tensions build as the story goes, but it is evident from the start. The only "ethnic" looking characters are the cook (Bolivian) and waitress (Paraguayan.) Both of these countries share borders with Argentina but might as well be 1 million miles away. Being of Argentine descent I can agree that most Argentines turn their noses up at their mestizo neighbors. The use of traditional Bolivian music is fantastic and the merging of Bolivian music and imagery is superb. I would like to see more short movies like this and although the scope of Argentine cinema is large this is a great example of Argentine film making.

When you see review blurbs on the case like "GRIPPING!" or "EXHILIRATING..." I was expecting more but this movie is just another art "fillum." First of all, you know it's an art film because it's in black and white. Add in the plodding pace, the tired and worn cliches (working class people hate foreigners who come to their country and "take their jobs").

This has all been done before and far better. I was hoping for more depth and breadth of character from a nation I am fascinated but this sadly fails to meet my expectations.

The extras are just the trailer and deleted scenes, just in case you're actually thinking of forking over any pesos for this piece of "cinema."

Director Israel Adrian Caetano was born in 1969, and has won several movie awards, but this is his directorial debut, 2001. Filmed in black and white the plot is little, the actors are excellent, and the social message is clear. It is the words that invoke so much anger, hate, jealousy, shame, by those struggling with economic and personal hardships. And inevitably, those words provoke the worst of man. The film is not gripping in action, but gripping in its message, words, reality, and pain all go through surviving.

Filmed in a Brazilian café that caters to the working class, the down and out, and those just ready for a quick meal. Enrique, the café owner, hires an illegal, Freddy, from Bolivia who for employment, has left a wife and children in Argentina.

Enrique, runs the small café with the help of Rosa the waitress while Freddy tends to the grill. It seems all that Enrique can do is manage the café, but yet he diligently attempts to monitor the outgoing meals versus incoming debt (tabs) from the low lifers, and ridding the deadbeats from passing out in the café.

The anger and hatred spews from the regulars, especially the taxi driver who is in deep despair, in debt, and in debt with Enrique at the café. The racist comments are heard and mean insinuations about immigrants taking work from the others. The N word is used, but my interpretation is the color of skin doesn't only apply to African Americans, it's an insult to one who may have darker skin. Continuing to keep his job, working hard, Freddy is keen to the ever present and erupting behavior; has a very watchful eye, and he, too, evolves in the circle of hardships.

One other film directed by Caetano to watch is Chronicle of an Escape. A soccer player's ordeal in prison, set in late 70's military coup. Warning, this is a film not everybody can watch, and I cannot, as a prominent theme is torture. Rizzo.

I am Bolivian and was disapointed that a Bolivian actor was not used, I can see the same descrimination against Argentinians in many countries, probably the least liked people in Latin America.
When a Bolivian peasant woman was pushed from a train and killed the "Grandmothers of the Missing" marched protesting and that showed that not all are the same.
It is a good film that can be a portrait of any imigrant in any foreign country.

This film won many awards at various festivals throughout the world so I thought I'd view it. Besides, I like movies from Argentina. The universal theme of immigration is the underlying driving force of this stark , gripping , at times revolting movie. A young man from Uruguay and young woman from Paraguay come to Argentina(not knowing each other) and end up working together in the local grill. Several other characters are brought into the story , by way of location, you know, hanging out at the restaurant. All have one thing in common, they are poor and barely able to make ends meet. One guy eats off his extended restaurant credit. The racism that exists is portrayed as anyone of color is treated second class and insulted outright. Freddy, the man from Uruguay, is berated by everyone , including his benevolent(he advances his pay for a phone call) boss, Don Enrique. Rosa, the foreign waitress, isn't treated much better, has a passive aggressive personality, hangs her head and looks like a a beaten dog. The black and white imagery, dialogues that take place primarily in one room, makes for a dismal, depressing storyline. The occasional use of South American folk music breaks the tedium. You know the storyline is going down a dark alley of no return. The movie is short, coming in at slightly more than one hour but maybe that is all it takes to convey the message of the movie. If more people understood that immigration, coupled with poverty, is a story of survival than maybe Americans would be more tolerant. Check it out, the message is universal. The movie comes with subtitles for non-Spanish speaking viewers.

I was expecting to be blown away given some of the press reviews I'd read. While this is definitely worth a watch, it does not live up to the hype.

I bought this film and was very disappointed don't make the same mistake I did. do not buy it a tremendous wasted of money
the theme is important but this ia a treatment demasiado corritente nada especially