Reviews of Latin American Films

Argentinian documentary movie by Diego Ceballos, Jorge Antonio Fortes - "Primarily, the film is a compendium of individuals' experiences as black in an overwhelmingly white society (97% are of European ancestry) - or, at least, a society that wants to think of itself as overwhelmingly and unproblematically white."

"A true Hispanic American film, this classic drama could be located just about anywhere in Latin America. This commonality is perhaps the film's greatest achievement."

Argentinian movie by Juan Carlos Desanzo - "The key to the bleak portrait of an exploited Buenos Aires street kid in "El Polaquito" is the lack of contrived hope."

Movie by Joshua Marston - "Maria Full of Grace" paints a passionate but never overdramatized portrait of women who fly to America with drugs in their stomachs."

Brazilian movie by Heitor Dhalia - "Nina" could have easily been called "Crime e Punicao em Sao Paulo," because that's exactly what it is: a modern version of the great Russian novel "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the story of a man who kills an old woman because he believes himself to be above moral codes and laws."

"Irene (Jennifer Connely) is a magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Francisco (Antonio Banderas) is a handsome photographer and he comes to Irene for a job."

Peruvian movie by Fabrizio Aguilar - "Set in the majestic Peruvian Andes in the 1980s, amidst a bloody civil war, "Paloma de Papel" (Paper Dove) recounts the harrowing coming of age of Juan (Antonio Callirgos), as he struggles to survive poverty, corruption and violence."

This movie was filmed in the Andes and selva, or Amazon, areas of Ecuador.