This is an excellent film in many ways. The lead actress is superb in her portrayal as Ana. One really feels that one is observing her life, like in a reality show. This is something new and young Argentine directors have been doing for some years, embedding their films with uncommon (though often slow to most viewers) realism, reminiscent of Iranian films.
The downward spiral in Ana's life, and the search for her past, now that the capital Buenos Aires is no longer the land of opportunity, is a perfect mirror of what is happening to Argentina's "educated" youth and "former" middle class as a whole. After all, the country's middle class (70% of the population in the 1980s) now represents less than 30% of the population. And this film and its characters convey this decadence without preaching, assigning blame, playing politics, or stereotypical characters.
Nor does the film resort to the excesses and shock value of similarly themed European films about the plight of young Eastern Europeans, as seen in British, French, German, Swedish and Polish movies these past few years.
Yes, the film is of particular interest here in South America. There were great crises in the 90s, but few people recognize and document the Argentinian one, arguably the most drastic and dramatic one of them all. Russia, Indonesia, Turkey and Mexico made big news. But none of these countries was ever among the world's richest per capita during the last century, nor did any of them ever have a huge, predominant capitalist middle class, where young people always had good expectations for their future.
Anyway, people in Europe or Asia may think the situation presented in this film is a splice of life from their own countries. But that's not really the case. This film shows these differences. There are no refugees here. It's the native born people like ANA who previously were the vast majority of the population who have a very uncertain future.
A good companion movie to this one is HOY Y MAÑANA (TODAY AND TOMORROW), a more hard core and brutal account of what a young college student becomes in today's Buenos Aires. If you enjoy ANA Y LOS OTROS, I definitely recommend HOY Y MAÑANA. They sometimes play in the same film festival together. Here, one played in Rio and the other in S. Paulo.
So, you can see them both, and get two different angles of the troubles Argentina's youth are facing, while also seeing two excellent films from a country which has been producing a great deal of quality cinema in the last 6 years or so, in spite of the terrible economic crisis. Check these films out. They're worthwhile, fresh, and different.
The downward spiral in Ana's life, and the search for her past, now that the capital Buenos Aires is no longer the land of opportunity, is a perfect mirror of what is happening to Argentina's "educated" youth and "former" middle class as a whole. After all, the country's middle class (70% of the population in the 1980s) now represents less than 30% of the population. And this film and its characters convey this decadence without preaching, assigning blame, playing politics, or stereotypical characters.
Nor does the film resort to the excesses and shock value of similarly themed European films about the plight of young Eastern Europeans, as seen in British, French, German, Swedish and Polish movies these past few years.
Yes, the film is of particular interest here in South America. There were great crises in the 90s, but few people recognize and document the Argentinian one, arguably the most drastic and dramatic one of them all. Russia, Indonesia, Turkey and Mexico made big news. But none of these countries was ever among the world's richest per capita during the last century, nor did any of them ever have a huge, predominant capitalist middle class, where young people always had good expectations for their future.
Anyway, people in Europe or Asia may think the situation presented in this film is a splice of life from their own countries. But that's not really the case. This film shows these differences. There are no refugees here. It's the native born people like ANA who previously were the vast majority of the population who have a very uncertain future.
A good companion movie to this one is HOY Y MAÑANA (TODAY AND TOMORROW), a more hard core and brutal account of what a young college student becomes in today's Buenos Aires. If you enjoy ANA Y LOS OTROS, I definitely recommend HOY Y MAÑANA. They sometimes play in the same film festival together. Here, one played in Rio and the other in S. Paulo.
So, you can see them both, and get two different angles of the troubles Argentina's youth are facing, while also seeing two excellent films from a country which has been producing a great deal of quality cinema in the last 6 years or so, in spite of the terrible economic crisis. Check these films out. They're worthwhile, fresh, and different.