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El bonaerense

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Argentina, Chile, France · 2002
1h 45m
Director Pablo Trapero
Starring Jorge Román, Mimí Ardú, Darío Levy, Hugo Anganuzzi
Genre Drama, Crime

Zapa is a locksmith in a quiet and little town lost somewhere in the province of Buenos Aires. The work is quite slow, and hours seem to pass slowly. Polaco, the owner of the shop, sends him on a job that consists of opening a safe at an office. The next day, Zapa is imprisoned for being responsible of robbing the place. Ismael, his uncle, a retired policeman, bails him out and sends him to Buenos Aires. Zapa becomes an aspiring officer in the Buenos Aires Police. He gets to his new home city, takes the instructional course, works at a precinct, has a love affair with a teacher and starts to see his life turn into a strange fiction.

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What are people saying?

What are critics saying?

60

The Hollywood Reporter by

Episodic in its storytelling, the film never really achieves any true narrative momentum. But individual scenes do register strongly.

70

Variety by David Stratton

Not exactly a police corruption thriller, the film is more a study of innocence betrayed, though its insights into Argentine law enforcement are pretty scary.

70

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

As a morality play, it's a one-sided contest, because the question of whether power corrupts is never a question at all. As a queasily thrilling tour of a dirty little corner of the world, however, Trapero's film offers a memorable ride.

70

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Trapero again proves himself a master of mood, evoking the gritty, workaday world of contemporary Argentina that helped establish him as one of the most important young directors of the new Argentine cinema.

50

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

Still, the vapor traces of farce and policier that waft from this terribly earnest film never coalesce -- perhaps our own cultural remove allows what plays straight at home to be experienced as slightly daffy.

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