Variety

The Daily Actions / Los actos cotiadianos (Argentina)

By Jonathan Holland

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A Las Ganas Que Te Deseo, SCCDF Digitales, Taller DCRP, Enecine production. (International sales: Las Ganas Que Te Deseo, Buenos Aires.) Directed, written by Raul Perrone.

With: Soledad Aguilera, Adrian Aguilera, Maria Galvan.

The Daily Actions" of the latest downbeat-and-dirty offering from Raul Perrone are those of a disadvantaged family in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Typically no-concessions fare from a helmer who defiantly plows his own furrow, this sometimes powerful, sometimes tedious, sometimes unexpectedly moving film has the real rebel spirit, utilizing no-frills documentary realism to persuasively show things as Perrone believes they are. Pic is unlikely to extend Perrone's faithful following; limited fest appearances are likeliest.

Enfolding the fragile consolations of home and the dangers of the cruel world outside, pic reps both a family portrait and a slice of social criticism. Impoverished, unsmiling and perpetually in survival mode, Sole (Soledad Aguilera) and her unemployed brother Bebo (Adrian Aguilera, Soledad's real-life sibling) live in a low-lit slum with their respective kids and their mostly silent mother (Maria Galvan). Perrone records them smoking incessantly, talking in circles and texting; when they listen to the radio or bring gossip home, some dark event is generally the subject. A tremendously evocative late scene beautifully contrasts the bright colors of a kids' play area with the muted tones that tend to dominate.

Camera (color), Perrone, Bernardo Demonte; editor, Zaida de Pedro; music, Anahi Colombo. Reviewed on DVD, Madrid, May 5, 2010. (In Buenos Aires Film Festival -- Argentine competition.) Running time: 82 MIN.