Bombón, el Perro -- Argentina/2004 -- Directed by Carlos Sorin

Considerably more than just a Patagonian shaggy dog story. Set in the remote landscape of southern Argentina, this life-affirming, comic road movie turns on the relationship between a 52-year-old out-of-work mechanic and his unlikely animal companion as they travel towards a promising new career in the world of dog shows.

Despite the title, this isn't some cutesy Disney-type dog movie. There's a lot of commentary about Argentina's dire economic situation. It has a documentary feel to it, partially because the director used non-actors. In fact, the two main characters have the same names as the (non-)actors who play them.

The story is about Juan, who after 20 years of working as a mechanic is laid off when the garage closes. Because of his age (52), he is having difficulty finding work. He is living with his unhappily married daughter. He tries to help out by selling beautiful knives with handles he carved himself to local factory workers. But times are tough and no one can afford them.

One day, he meets a woman stranded on the side of the road. He offers to tow her car to her (large, beautiful) home and fix it for her. As a thank you, the woman's mother gives Juan a prized Argentine Dogo, a big beautiful white hunting dog who belonged to her late husband. He had planned to open a kennel and breed Dogos, but died before that could happen.

(You can see a picture of him here: http://www.seattlefilm.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?FID=5&ID=5278)

The dog's name is Bombon, but Juan calls him "Lechien," mistakenly thinking that was his name because the husband, a Frenchman, simply called the kennel "Kennel Le Chien." (Chien means dog, for you non-French speakers.)

Juan takes Lechien back towards home and keeps running into men who admire him. He and Lechien get a job guarding a wool factory for a few days. When Juan goes to cash the check, he meets a man working there who owns dogos. He refers Juan to Walter, an expert dog trainer. Walter is very impressed with Lechien's pedigree and agrees to train him and let Juan stay at his home (his daughter refuses to let him keep Lechien at her house) for a 50-50 split of any profits they make at an upcoming dog show and any resulting requests for stud service.

Though not cutesy, it's a very charming, funny little film. There's great chemistry between Juan and Lechien. I think the cutesiness was avoided by not making Lechien too humanlike. But he definitely had loads of personality! Great performances from Juan Villegas and Walter Dondado, especially considering they aren't professional actors. B+


Redeemer -- Brazil/2005 -- Directed by Claudio Torres

Stylish, imaginative drama set in the murky world of Rio de Janeiro’s construction business. 15 years after his parents were the victims of a huge swindle, Celio meets the son of the speculator responsible for their ruin and encourages him to redeem himself by giving his fortune away to the local shantytown dwellers.

It started off pretty good...but then suddenly degraded to simply awful. I wanted to walk out, but I had to see if it redeemed (no pun) itself later on. No such luck. It went downhill right about the time the big statue of Jesus overlooking Rio de Janiero talked to Celio. It had some of the cheesiest special effects I've ever seen. I don't even want to talk about it anymore. This one gets the prize for the worst film I saw at this year's SIFF. D


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