Ignacio (Tati) Benítez (played by himself) is a lumberjack in Argentina's northern province of Misiones. He has been laid off from his work as an axman and tries to make ends meet searching the forest for branches and roots with peculiar characteristics for a local sculptor, who turns them into carvings that can be sold to tourists.
One day he unearths a tree root with what looks like an image of soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona (whether the image actually resembles Maradona or not is the subject of many hilarious comments through the movie). Maradona is ill, interned in a Buenos Aires clinic, and Tati, a dyed in the wool Maradona fan, decides to take the root as a gift to the ailing idol. That Tati lacks the money for the trip doesn't worry him; in fact, he achieves at least part of his objective almost for free through the kindness of various strangers. Whether Maradona receives the root at the end is not clear.
The Spanish title, El Camino de San Diego sounds almost the same as El Camino de Santiago, the famed pilgrimage route from France through northern Spain to the Galician town of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Santiago, James the Apostle are supposed to rest. Like in the Camino de Santiago whether or not Tati's trip reaches its objective is perhaps not as significant as the quest itself.
What makes this movie is Tati's interaction with people in his town and along the way; his fellow workers, his parish priest, a Brazilian truck driver that takes Tati most of the way (in spite of his partiality to Pelé, Maradona's Brazilian counterpart), a prostitute that asks Tati's help to reach Buenos Aires in search of a better career, a blind seller of lottery tickets, the guards and hangers-on in front of Maradona's country home.
During the trip there are glimpses of the Argentine reality of the time; the cult of El Gauchito Gil (one of many local saints/healers not recognized by the Church but venerated by many people), the road cut by piqueteros (people that make their grievances known by stopping traffic), workers that have taken a factory abandoned by its owner, etc. Most of the people we see are poor but always ready to help. As one says, "if we don't help each other who will?"
Carlos Sorin's movies are often minimalist, dealing with ordinary people and everyday situations and using nonprofessional actors. Sorin's direction and script for this movie are flawless; he shows people interacting with warmth, goodness and humor without falling into sentimentality. On the way, he manages to show unobtrusively snatches of the physical and spiritual landscape where his characters move. A superior film.
