El ultimo verano de la Boyita (2009)

Directed by: Julia Solomonoff | 93 minutes | drama | Actors: Guadalupe Alonso, Nicolás Treise, Mirella Pascual, Gabo Correa, María Clara Merendino, Guillermo Pfening, Arnoldo Treise, Claudio Quinteros, Silvia Tavcar, Edith Nadalin, Magalí Fernández, Paula Siero, Pochi Ducasse, Maríack Florencia Figueroa, Víctor Denardi, Ángel Ríos, Néstor Fournier, Horacio Charadia, Daiana Treise, Maximiliano Treise, Sebastián Treise, Matías Treise, Ismael Retamal, Enrique Kreymborg, Emanuel Martínez

Award-winning “coming of age” arthouse film by Argentine filmmaker Julia Solomonoff, which follows the adventures of young Jorgelina on her path to adulthood and the special friendship with Mario, a ranch sidekick. Guadalupe Alonso plays the part of Jorgelina, the young girl who is having a hard time now that her older sister Luciana (María Clara Merendino) has reached puberty: suddenly she is busy with completely different things and their mutual intimacy has come to an end. . They used to do everything together, but now Luciana has friends her own age, whom she talks to and has fun with.

Jorgelina herself is also in a transition phase, because she is no longer a small child, but has not yet made the transition to adolescence. To make matters worse, there are also great tensions between their parents, which has repercussions on the family. During the summer, Jorgelina does not stay with her mother and sister, but goes with her father to the countryside, where the family has a caravan annex summer house called “la boyita”. That is also the link with the title, which is translated as “The last summer of la boyita”.

On the vast pampas (meaning plain) that Argentina is known for, she meets Mario (Nicolás Treise). In a series of rippling scenes as they explore the landscape on horseback, talking and playing, they become friends. Solomonoff portrays the nuances very well, but does have the acting skills of her young protagonists for the film adaptation of her own screenplay. In any case, they are well cast, because both Alonso and Treise show that they are perfectly capable of displaying complex emotions and adding nuances to their playing.

Central to this is the unusual secret that Mario carries about his own identity, which could easily have turned out to be disastrous, but the film succeeds in this with flying colors. And yet something still gnaws. It’s all just too slick. Solomonoff has applied a veneer to the film that detracts from its – no doubt – honest intentions. Her native country is beautifully portrayed, without the bad sides of the time period in which the film takes place.

In defense, the dictatorship and human rights violations will undoubtedly have largely fallen outside the field of vision of a child like Jorgelina and that is not the subject of the film. The themes that do form the basis of the film are precisely aimed at winning the favors of the art house audience. Perfectly legitimate of course, but it’s all so thick on top that it becomes transparent and repels.

At the same time, this has not prevented critics and viewers from praising the film. And that the film was a favorite on the circuit when it went into circulation, this was evident from the awards it won at festivals in Miami, Sofia and Thessaloniki. Overall, however, ‘El último verano de la Boyita’ has become a beautiful and fascinating atmospheric portrait of a girl in development and a boy in uncertainty. The director’s attempts to please have to be put into the bargain.