Main Cast: Juan Diego Botto, Susú Pecoraro, José M. Sacristán, Agustín Garvíe, Vando Villamil
Release Year: 2004
Country: ES/AR
Run Time: 155 minutes
Plot
An aging author's life story sets the stage for an look back at the political turmoil and social upheaval of Argentina in the 1950s and '60s in this historical drama from filmmaker Adolfo Aristarain. Acclaimed novelist Joaquín Góñez (José Sacristán) has agreed to write his memoirs, and young Manuel Cueto (Juan Diego Botto) has been hired by his publisher to transcribe his dictation. Cueto, however, soon discovers his job is more complex than imagined; the disillusioned Góñez has been suffering from writer's block, and Cueto must ingratiate himself with the author in order to draw him out. Góñez was raised by a pair of open-minded musicians, and he enjoyed an especially cordial relationship with his mother, Roma (Susú Pecoraro). When his father died, Góñez and Roma were left on their own, and she had a difficult time adjusting to her loss while raising her son. As he grows older and the '50s give way to the '60s, Góñez (now also played by Botto) becomes a bohemian hipster who has quit school to hang out with his girlfriend, Betty (Carla Crespo), and their circle of creatively minded pals. As Góñez begins his life as a writer, he also becomes more aware of politics, and his activist friends soon find themselves roughly handled by the police; as his ideals are challenged and his romantic relationships begin to crumble, Góñez falls into a romance with his best friend's wife, leading to an emotional crisis that leads him back to Roma. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Jorge Ferrari - Art Director, Juan M. Roust - Art Director, Adolfo Aristarain - Associate Producer, Adolfo Aristarain - Director, Fernando Pardo - Editor, Jorge Gundin - Line Producer, Daniel Goldstein - Line Producer, Jose Luis Alcaine - Cinematographer, Jose Antonio Felez - Producer, Adolfo Aristarain - Screen Story, Mario Camus - Screenwriter, Kathy Saavedra - Screenwriter
Young journalist Manuel Cueto (Juan Diego Botto) is sent by his publisher boss to help solitary novelist Joaquín Góñez (José Sacristán) finish his long-overdue last book.
Brought out of his loneliness by the young man, Joaquín reminisces about his youth in Buenos Aires and his intense relationship with his mother Roma.
Jonathan Holland, film critic for Variety magazine and reporting from the San Sebastián International Film Festival, liked the film and wrote, "Argentine helmer Adolfo Aristarain turns a compassionate eye toward his own spiritual and political education in the rangy, quietly affecting and rewardingly intense Roma, his most achieved work to date. Lengthy, but not over-long, rites-of-passage yarn takes one young man's life as the focal point for the struggles which tore Argentina apart in the late '60s and '70s, as well as being an homage to the dangerous pleasures of self-discovery. Film garnered positive reactions at home on its spring release and has the emotional coherence to strike universal chords offshore."[2]
Exhibition
The film premiered in Argentina on April 15, 2004. Later in the year it was presented at the Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival on September 19, 2004. In Spain it opened wide on October 1, 2004.
Clarín Awards: Clarín Award; Best Film; Best Actress, Susú Pecoraro; 2004.
Havana Film Festival: Audience Award, Adolfo Aristarain; Best Actress, Susú Pecoraro; Best Screenplay, Adolfo Aristarain, Mario Camus and Kathy Saavedra; 2004.
Toulouse Cinespaña: Best Actress, Susú Pecoraro; Best Screenplay, Adolfo Aristarain, Kathy Saavedra and Mario Camus; Violette d'Or, Adolfo Aristarain; 2005.
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Art Direction, Jorge Ferrari; Best Cinematography, José Luis Alcaine; Best Costume Design, Valentina Bari and Kathy Saavedra; Best Editing, Fernando Pardo; Best New Actress, Marcela Kloosterboer; Best Original Screenplay, Adolfo Aristarain, Mario Camus and Kathy Saavedra; Best Sound, Daniel Goldstein and Ricardo Steinberg; 2005.
Goya Awards, Spain: Goya, Best Cinematography, José Luis Alcaine; Best Director, Adolfo Aristarain; Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Adolfo Aristarain, Mario Camus and Kathy Saavedra; 2005.
