After having seen Aristarain's excellent drama `Martín (Hache)' (1997) (qv) a few months ago, I was rather looking forward to this film coming up somewhere anywhere sooner or later, as I missed it ten years ago
. I have also commented recently on `Las Huellas Borradas' (1999) (qv) with Federico Luppi, directed by Enrique Gabriel. You might think that seeing so much of this Argentinian actor in a comparatively short period of time would turn out a little tedious, if not boring. However he does have that attractively noble way of holding the screen, such that one tends to warm to him and look forward to the next time a film of his comes out. Again, Aristarain falls back on Cecilia Roth, an actress who always pleases me, and nowhere better than in `Martín (Hache)'. For `Un Lugar en el Mundo' (A Little Place in the World) Aristarain adds the Spanish actor José Sacristán, who, in years gone by, only made rather comical sic appearances in third rate highly forgettable films, but recently has been in a number of more serious rôles. The two young actors played natural, clean interpretations, very wholesome. Good directing here, especially.
Aristarain takes a story his own very often and knows what to do with it. His stories are very human, such that it is not difficult to really get in there with the characters, and in this film there is no exception to this rule. Interesting to note that the main theme touches on the same as in Gabriel's film seven years later up in the mountains of Asturias and León.
Lost somewhere in the middle of the great expanses of nowhere, but in fact is the province of San Luis to the west of Buenos Aires, just north of the true `pampa', some people play out their lives on the losing side in `a little place in the world'. The juxtaposition of the various characters is echoed by scenes of a horse-drawn trap-cart racing against a powerful diesel locomotive, as well as appearances by a late-fifties looking automobile.
Whereas `Martín (Hache)' is unquestionably a Hispano-Argentinian production, `Un Lugar en el Mundo' is almost totally Argentinian; Spanish and Uruguayan participation is minimal, apart from the presence of Sacristán as one of the actors. Aristarain is evidently the lance-point of contemporary Argentinian cinema production, and with this carefully toned story he does justice not only to his reputation and his actors' but also to Argentina itself. That is indeed a very worthy consideration.
