|
Las Acacias
| Released |
9 December 2011 |
| Director |
Pablo Giorgelli |
Starring
|
Germán de Silva, Hebe Duarte, Nayra Calle Mamani |
| Writer(s) |
Pablo Giorgelli, Salvador Roselli |
Producer(s)
|
Pablo Giorgelli, Ariel Rotter, Alex Zito |
| Origin |
Argentina, Spain |
| Running Time |
85 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
TBC |
|
|
Takes two to tango.
A character-driven drama if ever there was one, Las Acacias doesn't quite hit the soul-seeping scales that you might expect. Personal, in-depth motion pictures frequently have the tendency to either strike a chord with some inner emotion inside of you or, then again, simply not. This Argentinian film manages to achieve a little bit of both ensuring that you come out of the cinema mainly dissatisfied.
About a lonely middle-aged truck driver that has delivered heavy loads from Paraguay to Buenos Aires for most of his adult life, Las Acacias is, in essence, a love story. Rough and hardened following his years on the road, Ruben hesitantly agrees to take a young mother and her five-month old baby back to Argentina with him in what becomes a long and largely silent journey.
Neither give away too much information about their personal lives and, thus, the awkward vibe of a hitch-hiking experience ensues before, gradually, an unlikely bond begins to take shape. The acting and direction is subtle and as slow-moving as they come which forces the viewer to leave a lot to the imagination – if you are patient enough to hang around. A saving grace is that the movie is less than ninety minutes long, for had it been closer to two hours the temptation to fall asleep may have become overwhelming.
In truth, the film, while a tad laborious, is really rather sweet and is set amongst the backdrop of traditional South American landscape and culture. The premise of the story is excellent and perhaps writer and director Pablo Giorgelli, who was making his debut, could have refrained from relying so heavily on the cast's silence in setting the mood of each scene. A heart-warming, if not a little bit too much of a slow-burning, drama.
-
David Caulfield |
