The South (1988) User Reviews (5)

Nice match of images and music

[arcnile · 8/10 · 5 July 2008]

This is the third of Solanas' films that I watched. I heard quite some familiar tunes from Astor Piazolla, accompanied by a lot of dreamy scenes. The night cityscapes are charming and the montage is excellent. The film is about love, life, and hope. Some people died, some disappeared, some just live on, while politics and romance is interwoven together.

Hardly know how it was during the dictatorship era in Argentina. But tragedies are similar. Conscientious citizens got arrested, no right to express opinions, books ruined and public muted by brazen authority. History never stops repeating itself, here or there.

Sometimes it reminds me the later works of Fellini. Maybe it's because of the supernatural feeling and the Latin language.

Love, loneliness, politics, and, of course...Tango

[Brahms · 10/10 · 12 January 1999]

This movie has everything you can ask for. The direction and the cinematography are excellent, the soundtrack includes Astor Piazzolla (He was a revolutionary of the tango, besides of a genius) and Roberto Goyeneche, one of the greatest voices in Tango's History.

When Argentina became a democratic country, after a long time of dictatorships, the lifes of many people changed. There was a new hope, a new beginning. This movie tells just one of many stories. If you haven't seen it, you should, I promise you won't regret it, and maybe you could thank me later. And, of course, buy the soundtrack if you want to have a masterpiece of Tango

Wonderful movie

[drewski_30312 · 9/10 · 28 February 2009]

This movie is very sad but also. It is the opposite of anything that comes out of our movie culture. Beautiful music and very moving. If you are a fan of tango music you will also enjoy the scenes of Roberto Goyeneche( "El Polaco") haunting tango singing that are interspersed during the movie. At times this movie works almost like a tango musical. When I say musical don't expect to see people dancing or singing gaily in the streets. Since the music is mostly tango (there also a Milonga song "El Tartamudo" The Stutterer The movie is not a linear narrative. It is very existential and atmospheric.

I also recommend movies by Eliseo Subiela: " No te mueras sin decirme donde vas." Don't die without telling me where you are going

Sur: A true "atmosphere" film.

[[e-mail] · 9/10 · 18 August 2002]

"Sur" is an excellent nutshell of the Argentine experience during their brutal 1976-83 dictatorship, both the persecution (symbolized by Floreal's ordeals) and the economic ruin (captured in the film's being set in Buenos Aires' neglected southside slaughterhouse district).

Coming Home

[WilliamCrocodile · 9/10 · 3 April 2022]

Through the window-pane, she is waiting. She imagines his look and his body.

Through the gate, through the bars, he speaks to her, dreams her, rails against her.

Through the night, he speaks to death, summons the shadows.

Through time, he bumps into walls, blows, the skips of memory.

Through life they love each other, like lovers do.

Through another body they love each other differently.

Through the South they wander, they continue the work of living and saying goodbye to the departing.

Through the window-pane he comes, to shut exile, and open desire again.