Lost Embrace
Lost Embrace
| 14 March 2004 (USA)
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In Buenos Aires, the twenty-something Jewish-Argentinean Ariel Makaroff ditches the University of Architecture and spends his time wandering through the downtown gallery where his mother has a lingerie shop and his brother runs an importation business. Ariel has never understood why his father left him when he was a baby, but when his dad returns to Argentina, that will soon change.

Reviews
Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Andres Salama This slice of life is set on the old commercial neighborhood of Once in Buenos Aires, right after Argentina's economic crisis of 2001. Set mostly among the Jewish community in the neighborhood (though members of other communities, like Bolivians and Koreans, also appear), the main protagonist is Ariel Makaroff, a twenty something guy, who helps his mother run a lingerie shop in a galeria (that is, a very seedy and shabby department store). His father having emigrated to Israel years ago to fight one of the wars there, Ariel longs to emigrate to the developed world, specifically Poland, ironically from where his grandmother escaped sixty years ago because of antisemitism. To impress the Polish consul in order to get the passport, the Jewish man tries to name several famous Poles, but can only come up with the (then) Pope. This movie tries to paint the life of a middle class whose dreams of upscale progress became shattered after recurrent economic crisis, but it ends up being less interesting than it should be; still, a not totally bad effort.
Ryan Centner I have seen the movie several times now, and keep loving the very porteño lines, the perfect way in which the filmmaker captures the unique setting of Once (and a little of Abasto), as well as the tone of 2002/2003 there in Buenos Aires. The delicate portrayals of emotion and spirit are heart-rending and hilarious together. For anyone who knows Buenos Aires beyond the bullshit vended to you by some tourism operator, this film will delight you. It also has enough appeal and quirkiness to charm broader audiences that have some curiosity about slice-of-life films from elsewhere. If you have seen Berman's film "Esperando al Mesías," many people will look familiar in this movie, but it's only the actors, not the characters who are the same, and even though only a few. Like that other movie, there is also much emphasis on Argentine Jewish everyday life, but not in a way that is insular at all -- bringing in, instead, the rest of life that can combine effortlessly or create the conflicts and commotions that keep life and culture vibrant. Berman also seems to show a strength across his movies in grappling with the importance of longer-standing histories in their very simple, quotidian upcroppings. In all, an excellent film by an excellent filmmaker.
fabibi I thought this movie was a delightful surprise. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I was charmed and moved by the story of this young man searching for his identity when everyone and everything around him seems to dictate who he should be and how he should behave. It is funny and touching in the way real life is -- and all the characters of the movie are so real. I felt like watching a Woody Allen movie -- without the bourgeois New-Yorkers' concerns but with more humanity. Maybe the movie should have been less fearful of its characters' inner feelings -- sometimes the director chooses to just play for laughs when the storyline should go deeper within the emotions and contradictions of its characters. But all in all, it is a beautifully crafted piece of entertainment. Plus, it feels so good to watch a movie from a country that gives us so few occasions to travel in its cities via celluloid.
Andres Rais I don't like Daniel Burman's movies. I don't recommend them. I solve my prejudice with this one. This movie is agile, simple and effective. This movie has a very good second part and increases the level towards the end. The film tells the story of Ariel Makaroff (Daniel Hendler), Jewish, late twenties with a mentality of a teenager. He runs from one place to another and he his idea consists in going abroad with Polish documents. He is running from the crisis of the country and all the people seems to have no brain. His father left him when he was a baby to go to war. Apparently his father went abroad for a different reason that Ariel will find out towards the second part of the movie. Simple plot, great ending. Performances are very good with an Oscar for Adriana Aizemberg who plays the role of the mother. I would like to thank Burman for solving my prejudice. A well received award in Berlin. I give this movie a 9 out of 10. Andrés.