Las Acacias

A visual narrative on ordinary folk with a simple but instantly recognisable theme - loneliness. Argentina of late has produced some magical road films featuring the lives of everyday characters - and they are all a joy to watch. It matters not that the dialogue, what little there is of it, is in Spanish. It could be a silent film or dubbed in Arabic. The film speaks for itself. It is so well crafted. A roughneck lorry driver who has travelled the highways of Argentina for 30 years and used to his own space, is ordered by his boss to take one of his journeys south to Buenos Aries with a passenger - a young mother and child. Gradually, as the journey progresses and he becomes more and more frustrated with the noise and demands of the child, but a bond slowly comes through. This is a very touching film and very well made. The open road is shown not as dramatic backdrop in panorama - but as a close-up with each of the characters in the shot. There are a number of comments made by reviewers here that liken the film to watching paint dry etc. I think these people went to the cinema expecting another Die Hard, Steven Seagal, Van Damme, Terminator shoot em up Hollywood rubbish. Suggest that in future they read the poster before venturing further.

Cinema isn't just there to entertain (or make money) it is also to educate and generate thought. Well recommended piece of social realism.

You don't know what they're thinking, you don't know how they're feeling, you can only guess. That's what makes this film intriguing and gives a "real life" feel to it. There is no background intrusive music, just the hum of a timber lorry lumbering (!) on the highway to Buenos Aires with its human cargo of man, woman and baby. One of the adults seems to have a lonely life without a family, the other one is part of a large and loving family, but there are hints of problems in their backgrounds. By journey's end you are hoping that all three will share a happy future together. By the way, there's no violence and only one brief bit of swearing.

Las Acacias begins with the sound of a chainsaw followed by a lumberjack felling a fairly large tree. Many others fall and they are then loaded on to a tractor trailer. A man drives alone, lost in his thoughts, as he carries the cargo through the rural countryside. He stops at a truck stop to wash up and we can see a scar, curving from his back shoulder to his ribs. He steps outside to smoke a cigarette and a young woman approaches with a baby and asks if he is Ruben. He replies yes and that he was not told about the child. She explains that it is a misunderstanding and they get into the rig and Ruben seems less than thrilled with his passengers.

First stop, "welcome to Paraguay" on a sign and he tells her to get out and walk across the border and he will pick them up on the other side. He fills out the necessary paper work and then eats dinner alone. She gets back in and at the next stop the officers ask to see her papers and ask if she has the fathers permission to travel with her offspring. She answers that there is no father. Ruben takes the pair to a diner so that madre can feed little nina.

Back on the road, he finally asks her name, which turns out to be Jacinta and her child is Anani. She asks if he has a family, and at first he says no but then admits to having a son. On route he pays a short visit to his sister and afterwords finds a peaceful lake to sit beside with his passengers where they discuss mundane things like dogs, which they both like, and Anani's age which is five months. There is very little conversation, with most communication being non verbal. Both actors are very good at showing their feelings with facial expressions. As the drive progresses, Ruben grows more and more attached to Jacinta and Anani and as it nears the conclusion I actually cared what happened to them, which is a rare thing in most movies. I do not agree with the negative reviews posted, complaining about the lack of dialogue. Be patient and let the subtlety overtake you, as it did me.

A truck driver hauling lumber from the forests of Paraguay to the markets in Buenos Aires is required by his boss to take a woman and her child with him. He is none too pleased, but as they travel on the mysterious 'something' happens. Not much of a story-line on the face of it, but as we journey with them we see the gradual, almost imperceptible, emergence of bonds of affection that could be turning to love.

The tale is told with very little dialogue, few settings (for most of the time we are in the truck cab) and no music. But the effect is enthralling. The acting is uniformly strong; you never doubt that you are watching 'real' people.

Of particular note is that of the three leading actors, the one who puts in the most remarkable of the excellent performances is the infant (played by Nayra Calle Namani, who could not be more than a year old). I would love to know how the director and the adult actors managed to coax this child into behaving as it does. It's magic!

This movie has a simplicity and honesty that is very moving. The faces say so much without words, so unlike the theatrical, fake emotions displayed in the previous movie I saw, The Deep Blue Sea. The images stayed with me well after I had left the theatre.

(Viewed at Screen 3, The Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK 04.12.11)

The tag line A man, a woman, A baby, 1500km writen on the film poster is more than enough to understand the plot. I have not watched any simpler movie than this one that carried the emotions in such raw form. Heartwarming film. I felt like I was sitting on a rear seat of the truck trying to get to Buenos Aires. Beautiful film.