Jorge Polaco

Jorge Polaco (born 1945) is an Argentine filmmaker.

Career

After directing the short film Margotita (1984) Polaco made his feature film debut with Diapasón (1986), which was followed by En el nombre del hijo (1987), for which he won a Golden Dolphin at the Festróia - Tróia International Film Festival in 1988. All of his early films star fetish actress Margot Moreyra as the character Margotita.

In 1989 Polaco made his most famous and controversial film, Kindergarten, starring Graciela Borges, Arturo Puig and Luisa Vehil. The film sparked controversy due to its perceived mistreat of child actors (the protagonist, an eleven year-old, spends most of his screen-time naked), as well as a number of censored scenes: an adult woman and a child take a bath together, the same woman later on makes suggestive advances on the child, plus the inclusion of an unrelated, explicit oral sex scene. The movie was banned from theaters one day short of release and a prolonged trial ensued over eight years, emotionally devastating Polaco and his fellow workmen. The film remains unreleased in Argentina. It has gained notoriety as being the first film to be censored by the government following the end of the Dirty War in 1983.

Polaco remained active nonetheless, filming Siempre es difícil volver a casa (1992) and La dama regresa (1996), the latter of which served as a comeback vehicle for retired actress Isabel Sarli.

Polaco retreated from directing for a period of time. 2001 saw his comeback, making the short film El milagro with professional ballet dancer Julio Bocca, contributing to the anthology film Historias de Argentina en vivo (amongst Adrian Caetano, Marcelo Piñeyro, Bruno Stagnaro and Vicentico) and directing another feature length movie, Viaje por el cuerpo, for which he was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction at the Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards, and won a Golden Apple at the New York LaCinemaFe.

After some time working on it, Polaco gave up on the project of a modern adaptation of Herman Hesse's Siddharta. In 2007 he made the short film A Berta Singerman. In 2009 he teamed once more with Isabel Sarli and made the feature film Arroz con leche, yet to be released. Polaco is currently lobbying for realeasing his Kindergarten in Argentine theaters for the first time since its creation over 20 years ago.