During the last half century many Argentines had to leave their country for Europe or the US, on some cases for better working conditions, in others as a result of political persecution. Between 1976 and 1981 "political persecution" meant "at best" prison, at worst torture and assassination. The ones who could leave were lucky to have some sort of advance warning.
Transplanting oneself to a new country implies abandoning one's support system (friends and relatives) and creating another support system with new friends and no relatives (except for immediate family). There are also adaptation problems related to new language, new job, new mores. The problem is compounded when going back to one's country becomes possible; returning means another change of jobs (with possible diminution of salary and status), re-adaptation to one's native country (which has changed in the meantime), etc.
Unfortunately, this movie addresses the problem in an overly simplistic and melodramatic way. Good actors like Luis Brandoni and Leonor Manso are fed interminable speeches and dialogs loaded with soap opera clichés and the emigration experience is depicted as almost necessarily implying one's loss of identity. This subject deserves a more intelligent treatment.
The expression 'Made in Argentina" of the title has a somewhat ironic connotation; it means pride in a local product (or person, or idea) as opposed to something "made in the USA". The movie is based on the play "Made in Lanús", a sentence with similar meaning (Lanús is a working class suburb of Buenos Aires). Both the play and the movie have been very popular in Argentina.
