El Abrazo Partido (Lost Embrace) (Argentina) (New Yorker Films) (2004) ***Year: 2004iMDB
Director: Daniel Burman Cast: Daniel Hendler, Adriana Aizemberg, Diego Korol
El Abrazo Partido tells the story of Ariel (Hendler) a Jewish Argentine youngster striving to find his identity. His life revolves around a shopping center that is populated with endearing characters, most also Argentines of Jewish origin, but not only, most having spent their lives in businesses with little or no future, yet never faltering in their belief in the importance of their life and work.
Ariel reminds us of a young Woody Allen, semi-paranoid, always questioning the situations around him, the reasons why his father left his family for Israel right after his birth, trying to become an European citizen by re-claiming his Polish heritage, etc. The movie consists of a sequence of scenes that adequately describe the characters as we follow Ariel's search, is full of dry humor, but may have a limited appeal to those that are not familiar with Argentina or with life around an older Jewish community.
Posted by TheCasualCritic on May 9, 2005 09:35 AM | TrackBack