Editor's Note:
Latin America has a rich literary history. Many of its best feature and short films are based on this work. Below is a sampling of films (available on videotape) which are literary adaptations. The LAVA web site at http://www.lavavideo.org has thousands of other Latin American titles listed. Let us know if you would be interested in previewing any of these tapes.

Brazil

Hour of the Star, The   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Suzana Amaral
feature   85 minutes   1985
With English subtitles
Based on a short story by Clarice Lispector. We meet the young, homely office worker, Macabea, who having arrived from the countryside, is spiritually crushed by the harsh realities of big-city survival. When Macabea meets Olimpico, a stubborn hustler, she clutches at the unmentionable possibility of love. Olimpico's cruelty is encouraged by Macabea's officemate, Gloria, who moves in to poach on the affair. Gloria, feeling some guilt, introduces Macabea to a fortune-teller who might bring her luck. What happens next is both tragic and transcendent.
Purchase Price: $ 109.95

Chile

Negra Ester, La   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Andres Perez Araya
feature   90 minutes   1995
With English subtitles
An autobiographical poem that was adapted into this drama. It tells Roberto Parra's life story, a popular singer, poet, composer and playwright who falls in love with a prostitute in a bordello at the port of San Antonio, Chile.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95


Moon in the Mirror, The   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Silvio Caiozzi
feature   75 minutes   1990
With English subtitles
Set in contemporary Valparaíso, this film centers on the relationship between an elderly invalid, Don Arnaldo, and his subservient middle-aged son, known only as Gordo. Manipulative, demanding, and embittered by his own physical infirmity, the old man uses a system of carefully placed mirrors to maintain surveillance over his son's movements in the small apartment the two share. Gordo is a general disappointment to his father, who misses few opportunities to insult him. The only sources of pleasure in Gordo's tedious life are cooking and his developing romantic attachment to Lucrecia, a widow living in the apartment beneath them. Screenplay by Jose Donoso.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95

Ecuador

Tigress, The   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Camilo Luzuriaga
feature   80 minutes   1990
With English subtitles
Based upon the novel by Jose de la Cuadra. The film opens with Don Clemente Suarez Caseros presenting a formal complaint to the Police Department against the sister of SaraMaria Miranda, who keep her locked up in her room. The rest of the film is a flashback. The three young unmarried sisters must manage a farm in the Amazon region of Ecuador, when their parents are killed. The sisters own a bar where they dance with their employees and choose one for the night. The local medicine man predicts that if the sisters are going to keep their property, the youngest sister, Sarita, must remain a virgin. Sarita soon tires of her older sister's (The Tigress) control of her. One day, a local merchant Don Clemente Suarez Caseros comes to the farm and invites Sarita to the local fiesta. When the two decide to get married, the Tigress opposes them. In order to get Sarita away from her sister, the merchant asks the aid of the police. The Tigress kills one of the policemen and reinforcements are called in. During the final battle, a voice calls the Tigress back to the forest. She raises up, but is shot. The film ends as her spirit runs through the forest.
Purchase Price: $ 89.95

Peru

City and the Dogs, The   Get Details
Francisco Lombardi
feature   135 minutes   1985
With English subtitles
A political allegory based on a Mario Vargas Llosa novel, this film portrays life in a Peruvian military school for boys, where the corruption of the military is learned and practiced. Theft, cheating, and brutality are common. Power and order are in the hands of a clique of older, stronger boys whose leader is a brutal bully. When one of the cadets is killed, another youth tries to expose the secretive acts of the clique by bringing down its bullying leader.

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