Within thirty minutes I was thinking seriously of moving to Argentina or, as it's depicted by Carlos Sorin, Utopia-West. This is a country where a young and reasonably attractive girl can find herself stranded in the middle of nowhere and bask in the knowledge that she won't be raped or otherwise molested by the first guy(s) to come along who will instead by a Candide figure far from home in the shape of jobless, middle-aged Juan Villegas who will think nothing of towing her car 30 kilometers out of his way and then fixing it at her home. A land where the girl's mother, a widow, will not only wine and dine Villegas but also present him with a thoroughbred dog complete with papers in return for his troubles. And we're still not through: Villegas has only to stop at a gas station to have a complete stranger hire both himself and the dog as a security team to guard a factory. More? Okay, Villegas goes to a bank to cash the check he gets for his security work and an executive not only admires the dog but puts Villegas in touch with a dog trainer. What a country. If you can put your cynicism/skepticism on hold then there's a lot to enjoy here. Apparently Sorin is known for avoiding professional actors in favour of real people so that the character of Juan Villegas is played by Juan Villegas whose last job was parking Sorin's car for five years. Similarly the dog 'trainer', Walter Donado is played by Walter Donado. The film seems to be saying that if your heart is pure then your strength is as the strength of ten because within days of meeting the trainer Villegas is the proud owner of both a cup and a ribbon from a local Dog Show. He has only to admire a singer in a cantina to have her invite him back home with her for coffee - and not just ANY old coffee but Turkish coffee. It's debatable whether Voltaire would recognize his creation so far from home but what isn't debatable is the simple humanity that informs this small, gentle movie.
Review of Bombón: El Perro
