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Bombón - El Perro
Director: Carlos Sorin
Argentina / Spain - 2004 - 98m - 12A
An unashamed crowdpleaser, Bombón - El Perro is one of the more accessible and gentle films to chronicle the ongoing impact of Argentina's dire late-nineties financial collapse. Like many of his countrymen, Juan Villegas (Villegas) feels the pinch very close to home: he loses his job as a garage mechanic and, as a 53-year-old barely able to read or write, has little realistic prospect of alternative employment. Out on the road one day in the expanses of Patagonia, Juan assists a stranded female motorist who turns out to be a dog-breeder specialising in the Argentinian Dogo (a large, white hunting-mastiff "insensitive to pain"). The breeder offers Juan a Dogo as a thank-you present - and after some deliberation, Juan accepts. He soon discovers that he has a prize specimen on his hands, one which ebullient Dogo-trainer Walter Donado (Donado) reckons has the makings of a champ...
Despite its title, Bombón - El Perro is by no means just a cutesy "dog movie" - Sorin can't be accused of breaking any new ground in terms of cinematic art, and he doesn't entirely avoid manipulative Disneyish bittersweet sentimentality. But his script has rather more ambiguity than you might expect from the early reels, and he's commendably careful to incorporate a realistic appraisal of the economic hardships afflicting Argentina in general and the picturesque, underpopulated Patagonia in particular.
And while, as ‘Bombon', Gregorio contributes a canine turn that the great Rin Tin Tin would surely have approved, his screen-time is wisely rationed so that he's never allowed to upstage his bipedal co-stars. The hyper-excitable, money-oriented, scene-stealing man-mountain Donado and the diminutive, self-effacing, soft-hearted Villegas make for an unlikely but enormously sympathetic double-act - especially when Bombon rapidly becomes a star in regional dog competitions. - Neil Young, Jigsaw Lounge
Director Biography: Carlos Sorin (born Buenos Aires, 1944) made his directorial debut with La Película del Rey (86), winning a Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film and Silver Lion at Venice Film Festival. He followed this with Eversmile New Jersey (89). Sorin spent a long period dedicated to commercials, returning to features with his Historias Mínimas (02), winner of the Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastian Festival that same year and Goya for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film.
“A beautiful film with a sense of humour as dry as its Patagonian landscapes...a charming shaggy tale of one man, his dog and his dreams. “ - The Observer
“Pure gold...I can’t think about this film without grinning all over my face.” - The Guardian
Winner - FIPRESCI Prize / San Sebastian International Film Festival 2004
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