Movie Review: *** Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires

 A brother and sister who were born in Buenos Aires go back for a visit.  Davie and Diana (Raphael Grosz Harvey and Cristina Rosato) get into the tango scene and take lessons.  However the also decide to check on Davie's background.  They have no photos of mother being pregnant with him, so suspect he may have been adopted.  The initial check shows he has a birth certificate; but then they check further.  They visit someone who helps families reconnect, and she explains that birth certificates can be false.  He leaves a DNA sample.  After they return to the United States the discover he does have a history.  His mother was murdered, but his father and sister have been looking for him.  He decides to go back, and because of this his adoptive parents (Gerardo Romano and Cristina Banegas) are arrested.  Their father worked for Ford Motor in Argentina.  The company was involved with the military government and their properties were used to house people being tortured.  The father worked breaking up the union and did this by reporting union members to the military who would pick them up and they were at factory for a time being tortured and then disappeared.  When Davie's birth mother was picked up she was pregnant.  They never saw her again.  The baby was given to the adoptive parents of Davie and Diana.

This is a work of fiction, but there was a dark period in Argentina when 20,000 people disappeared.  Now the grandmothers are trying to find the children of their children who disappeared.  The march daily in Plaza de Mayo.  Ford was complicit in this and a couple managers were incarcerated as a result.  

Davie's birth parents planned to name him Ariel.  The scene where Davie is reunited with his father (Albión Vainstein) is very emotional, and just as tragic as the scene of Diana's birth parents and Davie's adoptive parents being arrested on extradition order back to Buenos Aires.  

Word of warning there are some inappropriate scenes where Diana is finding herself in the tango scene.  

Movie Review: **** The Penguin Lessons (2024)

 I found this movie truly enjoyable for a couple of reasons.  It is set in Buenos Aires shortly after the military coup which would have been shortly before I was in the country.  I was witness to some of the things which take place in the movie.  

The story is about a disillusioned english man, Tom (Steve Coogan) who takes up a teaching posiition at a private school in Buenos Aires outside the capital.  He teaches English and poetry and is assigned to coach the rugby team.  He barely knows the rules to rugby.  When the actual coup takes place, the boys are sent home for a week, and Tom travels to Uruguay for a vacation.  There he comes upon a group of penguins who have gotten caught in an oil slick and perished.  One is alive so he nurses it back to health.  The penguin becomes attached to him, and won't let him alone.  It won't go back to sea.  In the end he brings it back to the school where he hides it in his apartment.  During the day his housekeeper, Maria (Vivian el Jabber).  He befriends she and her granddaughter, Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio).  Sofia is active in politics and protesting against the military coup.  When she and Tom are out shopping, she is picked up by the military government and Tom is unable to intervene or protect her.  He deals with his failing until he cannot any longer, and he confronts who he knows is the head of the military secret police on behalf of Sofia asking for her return.  As he result he too is picked up and beat up and then returned.  He is a British subject.  It is only when the head master, Buckle (Jonathan Pryce) gets involved and talks to the government official that Sofia is released.  There was a point when the penguin is discovered and Tom is taken by the military police that Buckle had asked him to resign.  However he is spurned to to action and resolves this with himself.  The penguin becomes a part of the class, and the students actually learn when the penguin is in the classroom.

This movie is based on the memoir of Tom Michell of the same name.  In the movie the lead character is older and more crusty than Tom Michell was when he actually taught in Buenos Aires and had a penguin for a pet.  Other things from the movie I saw--the grandmothers protesting in the Plaza de Mayo across from the Pink house by the cathedral for their disappeared children and grandchildren.  Many of the grandchildren were adopted out after their parents were killed.  The checking of documents randomly on the street by military men in uniform.  I also knew a doctor who disappeared and then was retuned after being tortured.  And another woman who was grieving the loss of a child who had been taken and she didn't know what had become of the child.  And the story of another woman and her husband who taught in the illiteracy program.  They escaped to Spain but all their home was taken and given to a military family.  

The Tabernacle Choir World Tour - Buenos Aires, Argentina

 I cannot watch the video of the Tabernacle Choir in Buenos Aires without tearing up.  The subtitle is songs of hope.  The concert brings back many memories for me.  I was a missionary there 48 years ago.  I am not without my biases.  The narration for the concert is all in Spanish; not just Spanish but Argentine Spanish.  I love to hear the accent.  The choir sings in both Spanish and English going back and forth.  

I watched the concert live and there are some differences.  In the live concert they cut to different places throughout South America.  Hoever in the version in the link this has been taken out.

The narration tells several different stories, including the lan of salvation, Lehi and his vision of the tree, the Joseph Smith story, and the story of the Church in Argentina.

The music is wonderful.  The choir starts with singing songs of praise.  They sing four different versions of Hallelujah, including a version from Argentina, an Italian version and from The Messiah.  As part of the story of the plan of salvation they play some tango.  Actors portray the plan of salvation, finding love and going through trials and facing mortality, bringing babies into the world.  They have guest accordion and violin players.  They also have tango dancing.  

When they sing "What a Wonderful World" it is just precious, arranged by Mack Wilberg.   The guest performers also sing some very nice songs.  Soledad Pastorutti is an Argentine Folk singer.  She sang "Tren del Cielo," (Heavenly train), "Brindis," (toast), and Los Paisajes, (and scapes).  La Sole sings with lots of emotion.  Tren del Cielo has a very catchy rhythm and melody.  She also sings "I Am a Child of God" in Spanish.  The audience starts the second verse and she comes in with the first.  So they sing the first verse twice.

The choir sings a couple primary songs after La Sole's set. They sing "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" and "Child's Prayer," singing both in Spanish.  Very nice.

When the missionaries march on stage it is very nice.  They are there representing the numerous missionaries that have served in South America in the last 100 years.  It is also very good to know that now days most of the missionaries are from the local population.  

The choir sang a series of familiar hymns such as "Come, Come Ye Saints," "I Believe in Christ" and "The Spirit of God.

I think the highlight of the night is all the guest performers sang "Cambia Todo" (everything changes) with the choir backing up.  It is very effective.  The idea is that through Christ everything changes, and we can have a new heart.

The night concluded with "God Be With You Til We Meet Again, Para Siempre Dios Este con Vos."