Un minuto de silencio

Saw this movie as part of the official selection of the Bogota Film Festival, Oct 2005 - a deep, thoughtful tragic-comedy showing how a middle-class laid-off worker and his wife struggle with the Argentinean economic crisis while still trying to raise their kids in circumstances they never imagined. As in most of the newly 'globalized' Latin America, here there are no welfare programs, no social benefits, not even lay-off compensations: Ernesto and his family are literally thrown to the street, on their own: losing your job never meant losing your life more than here. The more time passes, the poorer they get, and yet even throughout this ambiance, they can still laugh, help people in church, worry about their children's education, and plan a vacation.

Don't be fooled by the film's poster: this is not a romantic, cry-a-lot, glorious-ending Hollywood movie; even by Argentinean movie standards, there are real issues being raised throughout all the film and yet, it manages to make its point with laughs and very good performances.