INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE - HISPANIC SIDEBAR

Friday, April 15, 2005 at 4:45pm at Regal Winter Park Village
Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 1:30pm at Enzian Theater
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ARGENTINA/SPAIN, 2004, 83 MIN
IN SPANISH W/ENGLISH SUBTITLES
DIRECTED BY JORGE GAGGERO

Dora (Norma Argentina), the titular live-in maid, has worked for Beba (Norma Aleandro, The Official Story), an upper-middle-class divorcee, for more than three decades. But she hasn’t been paid in six months and has no alternative but to leave. Director/writer Jorge Gaggero personalizes the Argentine economic crisis in the lives of these two women through an intimate, sometime humorous story of humiliation, inequality, pride, necessity, endurance, and friendship. The acting is top notch; Aleandro’s emotions range from shock and denial to hopelessness and feeble struggle, and non-professional actress Argentina conveys her character’s stoicism, dignity, and understanding simply through her expressive face and body language. Gaggero details the day-to-day redundancy of their lives—from Dora’s dreary, repetitive housekeeping to Beba’s various schemes to make ends meet and keep up appearances. An honest and uncommon look at the complex relationship and bond between women of different social classes and experiences.