Bolivia

Bolivia (2001) This is the first feature-length film from director Israel Adrian Caetano. It was an Argentinean & Dutch Production. Filmed in black & white & on a low budget the film was shot 3 days a week over a period of three years. Kind of a neo-realism slice of life film the mostly plot-free film is confined to a café-bar in the lower-middle class Buenos Aires suburb of Villa Crespo, with few trips outside. It tells the story of Freddy (Freddy Flores), a Bolivian with a gentle disposition, who, after Americans burn down the coca fields where he is employed, loses his job. With little work opportunities in Bolivia, he leaves his wife & three daughters & travels to Argentina to search for employment as an undocumented worker. He hopes to make money & later return to his family. He lands a job as a grill cook in a seedy Villa Crespo café where the owner (Enrique Liporace) is happy to skirt Argentinean immigrant laws in order to secure cheap labor. It is in this café that Freddy meets the characters who affect his life: Rosa (Rosa Sanchez), a waitress of Paraguayan/Argentine descent, & an outsider by virtue of her mixed heritage; Hector (Hector Anglada), a traveling salesman from the province of Córdoba who's gay; a Porteno taxi driver (Oscar Bertea), & one of the driver's buddies. Freddy also has to deal with various Argentine café patrons who view all Paraguayans & Bolivians with disdain due to their ethnicity. The film gives us a realistic portrayal of racism immigrant labor & prejudices in Argentina. Cateano used professional & non professional actors. Freddy Flores was a local non professional. Other reviewers state this film is for art film students only. I disagree. All interested in foreign film & film in South America & Argentina will like this film. It very realistic & I enjoyed it. This short 75 minute film about poverty, intolerance, violence, & despair in contemporary Argentina is powerful & I recommend it. This is a universal story. 3 or 4 stars.

In a small bar/restaurant, at a corner in Buenos Aires Argentina, a Bolivian immigrant finds a job as a cook. His experiences and those of the locals in the bar are used by the director to tell us a story about life of working class people in nowaday Argentina. The film is almost entirely shot in the bar. The scenery, discussions in the bar, and development of the drama have a Jarmusch like quality.

The film won the critics-price in the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Highly recommended!

There are movies that shows you how hard can life be for people considered different or out of place. We know that Adrian Caetano is quite an expert in such films. "Bolivia" is not an exception. Really good, makes you think about facts that seems quite normal in our countries.In Argentina the Bolivian or Paraguayan people are generally unwanted immigrants, as Argentinians are unwanted in other places like USA, Italy or Spain. This movie shows clearly how can individual tragedies be part of social discrimination. Considered as "Nuevo Cine Argentino", Caetano's filmography should be watched carefully, being a good director that tells simple but deep stories.

Bolivia is a relatively short and simple movie which contains many cinematographic techniques which transmit different messages and themes to the audience. The plot of the film revolves around an immigrant from Bolivia who finds a job in Argentina as a cook at a restaurant-bar. The director uses several different camera shots as a means of revealing the main setting, in the restaurant, and providing insights on the new life of the newcomer. Moreover, through the use of high angles at certain points and the black and white coloring of the whole movie, the author lets the audience know that there is a bigger issue which drives the whole movie… racism. This issue is hinted at by the angles and color of the filming, but then it is made evident by the dialogue which is exchanged by people at the bar and the actions which follow up. The movie is certainly worth watching with an artistic and appreciative eye.

Xenophobia in the third world. Can you believe that. Caetano is possibly the most interesting Argentine director of the 2000s. There is no heros here. Only good characters in a interesting urban collage. Short and entertaining. 8/10