A divorced taxi driver shows up with a black eye at the home of his ex-wife’s new family; he’s been invited to dinner and he desperately wants to reconnect with his young daughter. A professional magician’s car breaks down and he ends up spending an emotionally intense night with a young, widowed toll booth worker. A singer-songwriter serving a lengthy prison sentence is released for one night to perform at a local community centre.
A divorced taxi driver shows up with a black eye at the home of his ex-wife’s new family; he’s been invited to dinner and he desperately wants to reconnect with his young daughter. A professional magician’s car breaks down and he ends up spending an emotionally intense night with a young, widowed toll booth worker. A singer-songwriter serving a lengthy prison sentence is released for one night to perform at a local community centre.
Ten-year-old Anina Yatay Salas does not like her name; each part is a palindrome, which means it reads the same way forwards and backwards. Anina’s schoolmates love to tease her about it, until one day Anina can’t take it anymore and gets into a fight during recess with her archenemy, Yisel. Their punishment is rather unusual: the principal gives each of them a sealed black envelope and instructs them not to open it until they return to see her in seven days. The mystery of its contents will eat away at Anina and get her into all sorts of trouble.
Uruguay 2002. Amidst nationwide strikes, Ariel, a student activist in Montevideo is informed of his father’s death. He returns to his hometown of Salto to attend the funeral. His father’s notary soon informs Ariel of his inheritance: an old dog, a house taken over by his father’s lover and a cattle ranch where the workers haven’t been paid in six months. Ariel is thrust into an unwelcome adulthood, and to escape becomes involved with the local student activist group. One of the great strengths of the film is the mesmerizing performance by Felipe Dieste.
Uruguay 2002. Amidst nationwide strikes, Ariel, a student activist in Montevideo is informed of his father’s death. He returns to his hometown of Salto to attend the funeral. His father’s notary soon informs Ariel of his inheritance: an old dog, a house taken over by his father’s lover and a cattle ranch where the workers haven’t been paid in six months. Ariel is thrust into an unwelcome adulthood, and to escape becomes involved with the local student activist group. One of the great strengths of the film is the mesmerizing performance by Felipe Dieste.
A football club, a transvestite brothel, and finally, the Jesus of Mercy Catholic chapel. Director Alicia Cano Menoni restages the happenings that led rather distinct tenants to occupy the same building at different points in time in the small Uruguayan village of Garbanzo. The Bella Vista blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction, truth and acting, offering the audience a candid and good-humoured story. The film carries a compelling metaphor, diving into the lives of a few specific characters while at the same time, playing with the medium of documentary filmmaking.
