Small Country (2008) User Reviews (2)

The small country in South America

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 15 February 2012]

Xavi and Rosana, who were neighbors in the Montevideo of the early 1970s, find themselves in Spain, years after of the military coup of 1973. Xavi is playing professional soccer while Rosana has just discovered his whereabouts some twenty years after that fateful era in their country, Uruguay.

Xavi and Rosana were inseparable as children. His father, Manuel, had emigrated to Uruguay and had a small shoe store. Rosana's father, Roberto, was the chief of police of the city. In spite of belonging to two different worlds, Xavi and Rosana were too small to understand the tensions the country was going through. That politically charged time was basically overlooked in the international press by the coups in Chile and later in Argentina.

The period left scars on Xavi and especially Rosana, who had to deal at an early age with the death of Roberto, who is tricked by a superior into carrying out an order he did not feel comfortable executing. Xavi and Rosana's love endured even after having witnessed upheavals that marked them forever.

Directed by Ana Diez, "Little Country" is an ode to that bygone era. It is ironic that the actual president of Uruguay was himself involved with the "Montonero" leftist movement the government feared. The film captured the essence of the time where everything was in turmoil, as the military was battling that faction they saw as a threat to what they wanted for the country. It is seen from the viewpoint of two neighbors who did not agree in many points, yet were able to live next door to each other without the animosity that ensued as the army began a war that sent many to exile.

Mauricio Dayub is seen as Roberto, the chief of police, His take on the police man, is right on target. Emilio Gutierrez Caba plays Manuel, the Spaniard who emigrated to America perhaps after his own survival of the Spanish Civil War, only to find himself in the middle of the conflict that was created in his adoptive land. Nicolas Pauls and Maria Botto are seen as the adult Xavi and Rosana.

Good atmosphere created by the production team with good camera work by Alfonso Parra. Director Ana Diez, whose work we had not seen prior to this film, keeps things in rein in this portrait of a bygone era.

Uruguay, small country, big trouble

[guy-bellinger · 8/10 · 29 March 2010]

Uruguay is, as indicated by the title a "paisito" (small country). Only Suriname can boast being smaller in South America. But being tiny does not mean avoiding big trouble. The "Switzerland of South America" indeed experienced - just like its bigger counterparts - its own military coup d'état in 1973, nine years after Brazil, shortly before Chile and some time before Argentina. But being small does not happen to be any blessing at all since, although the people of Uruguay suffered as much as the inhabitants of its brother countries, their own ordeal was somewhat overlooked by the media. That is the reason why Spanish film director Ana Díez deserves praise for highlighting this forgotten tragedy through her last opus "Paisito".

Of course the description of the violent overthrow of a democratically elected administration by the military in South America has been shown on the big screen more than once ('Etat de Siège'[1973],'Machuca'[2004],'The Year my Parents Went on Vacation' [2006)]) and you will not be surprised by the fundamentals of this particular coup: a Marxist group (here the Tupamaros) which must be eradicated to "protect the country from communism" ; the Army deciding to "save the country" - and even "western civilization" - by arresting, torturing and liquidating the "enemies of the nation". But - aside from the fact that the events in Montevideo are little known - the director along with the writer, Ricardo Fernandez Blanco, manage to make the story exciting by choosing not to tackle the subject head on but from a double sideway angle: in effect,the putsch is evoked first by two adults who meet again after more than twenty years, then by the same persons when they were kids. The device enables the authors to add human complexity to the basic situation when the couple talks and to give more ambiguity when the children go through the facts without figuring out exactly what is going on around them.

As a result, "Paisito" remains intriguing throughout and even if a few details leave to be desired (Pablo Arnoletti, who plays Xavi as a child, is rather stiff and awkward; Emilio Gutierrez Caba, who plays his father, looks too old for the role; part of the dialog exchanged by Maria Botto as Rosana adult and Nicolas Pauls as Xavi adult, sounds a bit too literary to ring true), the movie as a whole is very convincing and features at least two above par interpretations, Mauricio Dayub as the captain of police, a man of good will caught in the cobweb of the coup and an unidentified actor as the colonel,a brute whose joviality hardly conceals cold ruthlessness.

Informative and well-made, 'Paisito' deserves to be seen by all, from teen to old age.