HUGO SIGMAN

HEROIC LOSERS (2021)
Starring Ricardo Darín, Luis Brandoni, Chino Darín, Verónica Llinás, Daniel Aráoz, Carlos Belloso, Rita Cortese, Andrés Parra, Marco Antonio Caponi and Guillermo Jacubowicz. Directed by Sebastián Borensztein.

The year is 2001, and Argentina is hitting the lowest point in its great depression. His glory days far behind him, retired soccer star Fermín now runs a service station in a sleepy provincial town. Hoping to pull his family and their community out of decline, Fermín seeks to convert some abandoned grain silos into a viable storage facility. He convinces friends to invest in the cooperative, but is railroaded by a conniving bank manager into placing their cash into a savings account just as the banks are about to be frozen by the government, rendering their money useless and their plans quashed.

For a time things seem only to get worse, until rumours spread of a secret depository containing the cooperative’s pilfered cash and much, much more. With Fermín as their Robin Hood–esque leader, the group conspires to infiltrate the cache, but it’s going to take some serious resolve, a little inspiration, and a lot of luck to pull off this honest-person heist.

REVIEWS Heroic Losers - Enjoyable working-class heist hijinks from Argentina

WILD TALES (2015)
Starring Ricardo Darín, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Érica Rivas, Oscar Martínez, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg, Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa and César Bordón. Directed by Damián Szifron.

A collection of six darkly funny short films united by a theme of vengeance.

REVIEWS Wild Tales - Deliciously devious

WHILE AT WAR
Starring Karra Elejalde, Eduard Fernández, Santi Prego, Nathalie Poza, Luis Bermejo, Tito Valverde, Patricia López, Inma Cuevas, Carlos Serrano-Clark and Luis Zahera. Directed by Alejandro Amenábar.

It’s July, 1936. Nationalist forces take to the streets of Salamanca, challenging the authority of the democratically elected Second Spanish Republic, and arresting the city’s mayor for the crime of being Republican. However, the esteemed Miguel de Unamuno author, professor, and rector, pays the uprising little mind: for all his wisdom and experience, this great man of letters doesn’t believe that his country is under imminent threat.

Initially defying his friends and family by publicly supporting the rebellion, it’s not until his colleagues are rounded up that Miguel begins to reconsider his principles, hoping he can exert his considerable influence to bring reason before it’s too late.