In this film, Luciano Caceres plays Tito Pereyra and we see his ascent from literally rags to riches. During his childhood he lives with his very humble mother (his father was always absent from home) near a cane field in northern Argentina. Then he is expelled from school. He tries shining shoes at the local train station, until one day he decides to flee to a seaside resort, where he opens the limos of bigwigs at casinos. Then he returns to his hometown, but goes back to the big town (this time, Buenos Aires) as a young man. He lives in a single room around criminals and prostitutes and almost gets involved in their line of work, but he has a break when he is offered a job cleaning bathrooms at a factory. Cut to several years later, and he already owns the factory (this sort of thing makes the movie not very believable). He eventually becomes a very rich businessman, in the import business, for which he has to bribe customs officials and military officers as well as to scare judges. But he can never quite escape his past, and he will soon get his terrible comeuppance for his success.
At almost two hours, is quite long for an Argentine film. Its production values are also quite good for the country (and also considering this is a film debut). Unlike other filmmakers from Argentina, the director knows he has to entertain and engage the audience, which he does. Among the minuses of the movie is that the plot is not quite believable: I don't believe such rapid social climb is possible in Argentina (or perhaps in any country). There are also some crude, hard to believe scenes, for instance, one near the beginning when he and other boy are sadistically beaten by the nuns in a religious school. Or the penultimate scene involving a shootout. Or the last scene (which I'm not revealing). Anyway, this film is quite not a great film, and is hard to believe at times, but it is quite engaging and it shows a director of some talent
At almost two hours, is quite long for an Argentine film. Its production values are also quite good for the country (and also considering this is a film debut). Unlike other filmmakers from Argentina, the director knows he has to entertain and engage the audience, which he does. Among the minuses of the movie is that the plot is not quite believable: I don't believe such rapid social climb is possible in Argentina (or perhaps in any country). There are also some crude, hard to believe scenes, for instance, one near the beginning when he and other boy are sadistically beaten by the nuns in a religious school. Or the penultimate scene involving a shootout. Or the last scene (which I'm not revealing). Anyway, this film is quite not a great film, and is hard to believe at times, but it is quite engaging and it shows a director of some talent