Latinbeat, 9/12.

Returning to the country of one's roots is at the core of Mitch Teplitsky's pleasant documentary Soy Andina (site; the film closes the festival on Tuesday, September 18, at 8:30 pm). Two women make this journey to Peru - Nélida Silva, after living in New York for 15 years, and Cynthia Paniagua, born and raised in Queens by her Peruvian mom and Puerto Rican dad. Folk dance is what connects the two and packs the documentary with rhythm, music and color. The movie concentrates more on Cynthia than on Nelida, as the former applies for a Fulbright scholarship to study Peruvian folkdance on its home turf.

The film itself is choppy and homemade but well-enough thought-through and photographed to keep us alert. It doesn't fully come together until well over the half-way point, as Cynthia - a fine dancer - discovers Marinera and suddenly seems to have found her style and however-you-say-raison-d'etre-in-Spanish. Two questions remained dangling at the film's close - for me, at least, and I would hazard a guess for others, as well: In order not to spoil anything, I'll just ask, Where did this come from? And have we met - or even seen - the Peruvian or American who is co-responsible?

We don't get to see all that much moviemaking from Bolivia, but I suspect that, whatever the country it came from, Martin Boulocq's The Most Beautiful of My Very Best Years (Lo más bonito y mis mejores años; site) would attract attention. The film (Sunday, September 16 at 8:30 pm) opens (and closes) with shots of a bridge that might have something to do with one of the main character's interests/studies, as well as having symbolic, social and political resonance. Then the writer-director simply tosses us into media res and the world of his main characters, two males who are soon joined by a female who is a friend to one and a lover to the other. The men love each other, too, in their way, dancing around this with the not entirely surprising Latin America machismo.

Boulocq's dialog is odd: believable yet so startlingly specific to country, character and class that it takes us slightly aback in its few concessions to expected exposition. We learn about the relationships haltingly and come to see the likeable and dislikeable qualities of each character pretty thoroughly within the film's well-paced 95 minutes. Although shot on a miniscule budget, the bleached and slightly blurry photography works well enough, and the performances are fine indeed. That Boulocq was a mere 25 when he filmed this would seem to bode well for a lengthy and interesting career.

Based - rather loosely, I think - on a 2003 news story about a group of Colombian soldiers who stumbled upon a huge stash of money and drugs left behind by guerillas, A Ton of Luck (Soñar no cuesta nada; site) would seem to be a can't-miss movie. And indeed it doesn't, although it doesn't quite make it, either. Unlike the slick and up-to-the-minute Bluff (Colombia's other entry in Latinbeat), this one has some of the simplicity and naiveté of El Salvador's Pinta the Bird although it's nearly ten times as long. The soldiers are all good Joes who don't even consider "offing" the one honest man among them who insists that they should not take the money. Nope, these mucho macho sweethearts, including their leader, are all diamonds in the rough, if a little dumb at times. (It's a sleazy gal who's the villain of the piece, but fortunately she is balanced by the pure-as-the-driven-snow wife and mother.)

Despite all this, the mostly male cast manages to differentiate nicely between the many shaved-head soldiers, and the movie generates some suspense, a few laughs and a point or two scored at the expense of the big boys who take it all away from those of the lower echelon. Director Rodrigo Triana (who has worked mostly in Colombian television) and writer Jorge Hiller accomplish just about what you'd expect from a Colombian-style mainstream movie that's "based on a true story." A Ton of Luck screens Saturday, September 15, at 3 pm.

Posted by dwhudson at September 12, 2007 1:55 PM