Common Ground

Adolfo Aristarain's 2002 Argentine film follows a literature professor forced into retirement from his university. As Fernando and his wife Liliana prepare to visit their son in Spain, they realise his pension will not be enough to live on. The film was made just after the Argentine economic crisis of 2001 and addresses that period directly. The choice between leaving the country and staying, the collapse of the middle class and a lifetime's work suddenly losing its value sit at the centre. Aristarain builds the story through conversation rather than large events. The scenes between Federico Luppi and Mercedes Sampietro carry the whole film; both argue in long sentences and without raising their voices. That is the director's known manner. Who it's for: those who like Argentine cinema and drama built on talk. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a brisk narrative; the film rests on long dialogue and its plot is thin.