Dir. Alejandro Agresti, 2003, USA/UK, 115 mins/ Spanish: English subtitles
Cast: Rodrigo Noya, Carmen Maura, Julieta Cardinali, Mex Urtizberea, Alejandro Agresti
Review by Meera Dattani
It’s Buenos Aires, 1969, and Valentín (Noya) is a charming and intelligent-for-his-age eight year old who is coming to terms with his domestic situation. His mother has disappeared, his father (Agresti) is more interested in his career and personal life than his son so Valentín ends up living with his ageing, traditional grandmother (Maura).
Valentín’s one friend in his neighbourhood is the bohemian Rufo (Urtizberea), a local recluse and pianist who tries to encourage the young boy’s ambitions – aside from desperately wanting a mother, Valentín also wants to go to the moon. An only child, he spends time in his room, making model rockets and traipsing around the house in a homemade spacesuit! It is his dreams that give him hope in otherwise pretty insecure circumstances.
But a breath of fresh air arrives with his father’s newest girlfriend Leticia (excellently played by Cardinali who is actually a famous Argentinean TV actress). His father wants Valentín to meet her (as he does with all his girlfriends who are potential mothers for his son) and their conversations tell us much about Valentín’s family and the film’s themes of love, religion, family – and bigotry. As he opens up to her, his pain and confusion becomes evermore evident and is topped by his desire for a mother figure. But it becomes clear that despite the connection between this child and adult, we know that she won’t last long as she’s Jewish and Valentín’s family is anti-Semitic – we find out his mother was also Jewish.
Valentín manages to combine both humour and sadness with a very strong sense of nostalgia for happier times particularly via Valentín’s relationship with his grandmother who often talks to him about her past with fond reflection. Maura is as always excellent in her role and in their relationship, we are witness to the stifling sentiments often felt by young children when left in the company of the very old and infirm. But there is love and affection here and as Valentín opens his eyes to the adult world, his relationship with his grandmother is also renewed. And while we will never know exactly why his mother left home, there is a great cameo from Lorenzo Quinteros as a mysterious older man who puts some of Valentín’s fears to rest.
It’s all too easy for a film with a child protagonist to be too sweet and feature the child in a series of endearing scenarios (and Noya is the archetypal cute kid with his big glasses and sometimes far too astute for his years). But director Agresti somehow avoids this for the most part, showing Valentín’s exposure to the adult world and its nuances with great sensitivity and intelligence. Although nothing much happens, it’s one of those films that drifts on, showing another life, another world and it works because you care about this child and how things will end up for him. Beautifully filmed by José Luis Cajaraville and with a lovely soundtrack by Paul van Brugge and Luis Salinas, Valentín succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of late 60s Argentina and you can’t help but think it is some sort of memoir of Agresti’s own life.
