ScreenWize

From the director of Historias Minimas comes another wonderfully modest and gentle film, this time about a man, a dog, trust and libido. Hailing from Argentina, director Carlos Sorin has once again set the story in Patagonia, the bleak desert landscape that dominates the south of the country. The story centers on Juan Villegas, beautifully underplayed by first-time actor of the same name, who is more than middle-aged and in search of work having been retrenched after 20 years in the same job. It seems as if Juan’s ambition and energy have been flattened by fate and by the wind that blusters mercilessly through the harsh Patagonian landscape where Juan has spent his life. With no home and no wife, Juan pushes about in his old truck trying to sell his handmade knives or find a job as a mechanic. He is in search of the second chance that doesn’t usually come to the socially and economically impotent, and he displays a dignified lack of the machismo usually found in South American heroes.

Just when you wonder where the story and Juan are headed, he is given a huge white dog by a grateful widow after helping her stranded daughter. Named Bombon, the dog becomes Juan’s companion and a strange symbol of the journey into an unknown and fragile future. As the two of them sit side by side in the front of the truck - Bombon as regal as an ageing aunt - Juan casts sideways glances at this enormous mutt, unsure of what on earth will happen next in a world that seems to constantly depend upon chance and the goodwill of the most unlikely characters.

And this is a character driven film, carefully paced by Sorin with an unpretentious intimacy and filmed against the backdrop of the sparsely populated and washed out Patagonian landscape. There is nothing here of the outward emotion and violent urban action of Amores Perros, that other Latin-American film about dogs. Bombon El Perro reveals itself in small moments that become increasingly loaded with feeling, as we understand the significance of the relationship between man and dog. There are, too, some delightfully funny events in the strange journey that the team of Bombon and Juan take in their search for a future.

There is no salsa, samba or spice in this South American film. It has a beautiful simplicity and delicacy, rooted in a realism that is almost documentary in style; particularly early on before the story takes a firm hold. This is a very authentic film, endearing and unassuming, that walks just the right side of sentimentality to leave you feeling genuinely good about the world, even if you don’t like dogs. It’s definitely worth seeing.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon