Kamchatka (2002)

Director:

Marcelo Piñeyro

Writers:

Marcelo Figueras
Marcelo Piñeyro

Release Date:

17 October 2002 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Creer no es más que descubrir un par de secretos.

Plot Keywords:

Buenos Aires Argentina | 1970s | Junta | Boy | One Word Title

Awards:

6 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Ricardo Darín	...	David Vicente, dad
Cecilia Roth	...	Madre
Héctor Alterio	...	Grandfather
Fernanda Mistral	...	Grandmother
Tomás Fonzi	...	Lucas
Mónica Scapparone	...	Bertuccio's Mother
Milton De La Canal	...	Simon / El Enano / Tiny
Matías Del Pozo	...	Harry
Evelyn Domínguez	...	Niña Morena
Leticia Brédice	...	Teacher
Nicolás Cantafio	...	Bertuccio
Gabriel Galíndez	...	Military Guard
Maria Socas	...	Mom's Friend
Juan Carrasco	...	Priest
Demián Bugallo	...	School Mate
Oscar Ferrigno Jr.	...	Father Juan
Alberto Silva	...	Man in the Train

Directed by
Marcelo Piñeyro

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Marcelo Figueras
Marcelo Piñeyro

Produced by
Pablo Bossi	....	producer
Pedro D'Angelo	....	producer
Leonor Gold	....	associate producer
Luis Alberto Gold	....	associate producer
Óscar Kramer	....	producer
Francisco Ramos	....	producer

Original Music by
Bingen Mendizábal

Cinematography by
Alfredo Mayo

Film Editing by
Juan Carlos Macías

Art Direction by
Jorge Ferrari
Juan Mario Roust

Costume Design by
Magalí Izaguirre
Ana Markarián

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ezequiel Crupnicoff	....	assistant director
Guillermo Greco	....	second assistant director
Alejandro Lanezan	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Carlos Abbate	....	sound director
José Luis Díaz	....	sound director
Marcelo Lago	....	sound editor
Rubén Piputto	....	boom operator
Cecilia Rivero	....	sound editor
Ricardo Viñas	....	dolby sound consultant

Visual Effects by
Claudio Langsam	....	digital compositor
Jorge Russo	....	senior colorist

Camera and Electrical Department
Daniel Federico Fernández	....	second assistant camera
Lucas Guidalevich	....	film recorder operator: Cineon
Alfredo Mayo	....	camera operator
Victor Vasini	....	film recorder operator: Cineon

Editorial Department
Yoya Fernández	....	post-production coordinator
Jorge Firdman	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Miguel Cohan	....	assistant to director
Alejandra Dixon	....	production coordinator
Fabian Gabelli	....	animal wrangler
Nicolás Lidijover	....	continuity script

Production Companies

• Alquimia Cinema
• Oscar Kramer S.A.
• Patagonik Film Group
• Televisión Española (TVE)
• Vía Digital

Distributors

• Buena Vista International (2002) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Hispano Foxfilms S.A.E. (2002) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Ascot Elite Entertainment Group (2003) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Colifilms Distribution (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Mikado (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (2003) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2003) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Gateno Films (2003) (Peru) (all media)
• Pelicanfilms (2004) (Switzerland) (DVD)
• United King Films (Israel)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Argentina | Spain | Italy

Language:

Spanish | Swahili

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre | Spain:T | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | Italy:T | France:U

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Alquimia Cinema

Trivia:

Argentina's official submission for the 2002 Oscar Awards, Foreign Language film category.

Movie Connections:

References "The Saint" (1962)

China attacks Kamchatka

Like "Harry", I always enjoyed playing TEG. If you have never played it, don´t worry, for it´s actually pretty simple: one board with fifty countries, and three or four players trying to control 30 of them to win the game. But Harry has never played with so many people - he just plays with his dad. And when its only two players, it is a fight to the death: all 50 countries or nothing. Harry has never won before, and he is very close to winning - but his dad, controlling this little, obscure region on the edge of the board, this remote place with a tongue twister of a name, Kamchatka, still manages to resist for hours and hours. As Harry will learn later, surviving against all odds is indeed possible... and as he warns us as the movie begins, this will be the last and most memorable lesson he has learned from his father.

A touching tale made up of childhood memories, Kamchatka tells the story of a middle-class couple in Argentina in the mid-70s, during the military dictatorship that horrified and scarred the country. One day, without warning, the couple take their two children to an abandoned house, desperately trying to escape. But of course, the children understand nothing of this - instead they are forced to leave their lives behind and even change their names. The movie cleverly focuses on the older of the two boys, Harry (who actually names himself after Harry Houdini), and suggests the horrors of the period through subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) metaphors, sometimes with a sense of humor you wouldn´t expect for this type of pictures.

The good thing about "Kamchatka" is that it is not a history lesson - you never know exactly what the parents (and the other people that come and go into the children´s lives) did to be hiding, but it doesn´t really matter. What matter is that the film accurately portrays the heartbreaking situation of a man and a woman who do not know if they´ll live to see their children grow, and are still strong enough to fight back and try to smile for them. We don´t know what they did when they left the house every day. We don´t know what happened to their friends and co-workers. We don´t even learn their real names - like so many of the "desaparecidos", they are the anonymous victims of a goverment that almost destroyed a country. We only see the couple through the innocent - but oddly wise - eyes of their children.

Ricardo Darin and Cecilia Roth have once again proved with this movie that they are some of the best actors in Argentina right now - I´ve seen them both in more demanding roles, mind, and this is far from being their best performances... and yet they are both believable and their chemistry with the children is perfect. Director Ricardo Piñeyro knows what he is doing, and it shows: with this type of material it is dangerously easy to fall into the trap of making a cheap melodrama, and yet he manages (for the most part) to avoid making the picture overly sentimental or manipulative. Kamchatka may not be a perfect film, but it´s heart-felt and beautifully filmed.

For viewers who wish to know more about this dark time in Argentina´s history, you may rent the excellent Oscar-winning "The Official Story".