Bittersweet Argentinean romance released in theaters

Posted by Elena del Valle on May 8, 2024

Adiós Buenos Aires poster

Photo: Outsider Pictures

Adiós Buenos Aires, a 90-minute film from Betacinema and Outsider Pictures, opened in theaters May 3, 2024 in New York. On May 10th it is scheduled to open in Los Angeles at the Lammle Royal, and in Miami at the Coral Gables Art Theater. The 2022 film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Inspired by real life events in Argentina in 2001 the film follows the stories of a struggling five member working class tango band and its members during a severe crisis in the South American country. It was directed by Buenos Aires born German Kral, who moved to Germany where he graduated from the Munich Film School.

The romantic center of the story is Julio Färber (Diego Cremonesi), the bandoneon player of the Vecinos de Pompeya, and Mariela (Marina Bellati) a briny taxi driver who crashes into his car. Although he has decided to leave his country for a better life in Germany one event after another, including frozen bank accounts nationwide and rioting in the streets, challenge his plans.

The screenplay by Stephan Puchner, Fernando Castets and Kral, was inspired by the real tragic events that shook Argentina in late 2001. According to promotional materials “The government froze all the country’s bank accounts from one day to the next, which became known in Argentina as the Corralito (little stall). Three weeks later, the December 19 and 20 pot-banging protests in the streets brought down the government at the time.”

Kral has worked as a film writer and director, dividing his time between Munich and Buenos Aires. Kral worked with Wim Wenders between 1993 and 1996 on the film Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky (A Trick of the Light). His graduate film Imágenes de la Ausencia (Images of the Absence) was nominated for the German Grimme Prize in 2001 and won First Prize at the Yamagata Film Festival in Japan in 1999, and the Young Bavarian Documentary Film Award in 2000.