Customer Reviews

Ciudad del Sol

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I enjoyed this story very much. The film is well made and the actors do a very good job in portraing the years of "the "disappeared". I highly recommended if you want to know more about this issue.

Not one of the better cinematic offerings from Argentina, "Ciudad del Sol" is crammed with too many sub-plots and too much melodrama. There is a lot of dialog, but not much enlightenment or resolution.

The basic plot involves 20-year old Manuela (Jazmín Stuart) trying to discover why her mother, Dalma, has committed suicide.

Dalma left no note, so Manuela is trying to locate and speak with the people who knew her best - a group of friends who formed a "cell" during Argentina's Dirty War period. In flashbacks we see the band of friends are young, communal and well armed. We assume they are Montoneros - but this is never really explained. In the present day, as Manuela travels through Buenos Aires tracking down her mother's old friends, each person she speaks with gives her a new lead to follow - some of them put her in quite dangerous situations.

Meanwhile, Manuela finds a series of messages on her mother's answering machine from Luis Formosa (Darío Grandinetti), a mysterious man who seems desperate to arrange a meeting with Dalma before he has to return home to Barcelona. Manuela invents a new identity for herself, and a series of subterfuges to meet with Luis and learn his connection to her mother.

Dalma's friends are given to long philosophical rants about things like privacy, or gossip about other characters who we never see - apparently they ended up on the cutting room floor. Manuela spends a lot of time bursting into big, blubbery, hysterical tears. Even the marvelous Darío Grandinetti, who usually gives riveting poetic monologues, sounds bored as he pontificates about one thing or another.

Nothing special in the cinematography here. It's a very dark looking film; most of the action takes place either at night or during cloudy, rainy days. Apparently they are making a point - "Ciudad del Sol" - get it? It just struck me as difficult to see.

"Ciudad del Sol" is watchable thanks to the efforts of the very talented cast, but it's a bit below average.

Spanish with English subtitles.