Keswick Film Club - White Elephant

You are viewing the old version of our website.

Please visit our current website for all the latest information.

Sunday 29th September 5:00 PM

White Elephant (Elefante Blanco)

Director: Pablo Trapero Country: Argentina
Cert: 15 Year: 2013 Length: 100 mins Language: Spanish
White Elephant

Programme Notes

Cinema Handout (PDF 118KB)

Audience Reaction

Score: 68.48% Attendance: 95

Reviews

Links

  • More details on this film at the Internet Movie Database

Synopsis

Welcome to ‘Villa Virgin’, a shantytown in a Buenos Aires slum. The scene is an unfinished hospital—the ‘white elephant’ of the title. The background is corrupt politicians failing to get a housing project built, and drug cartels vying for control of the area - a (sadly) all too familiar backdrop to the modern world.

Our heroes here, are two priests trying to keep the peace between the rival gangs whilst pushing the politicians to get the housing project completed. Meanwhile, the homeless live in the empty hospital; all that is needed for an explosion is for something to light the fuse...

The backdrop of poverty and homelessness bring to mind the recent battles of Hugo Chavez in Venezula, whilst the church’s ‘peoples champion’ is even closer to home with the selection of the Argentinean Pope. These big issues are obviously part of this film, but Pablo Trapero is more interested in the real-world problems faced by the people involved; while the politicians procrastinate and get rich, the people battle everyday starvation, homelessness and violence and the priests face their own personal problems.

South American cinema has grown and grown recently. Pablo Trapero is familiar to us - we have seen his ‘Lions Den’ and ‘Carancho’ in recent seasons. You may well recognize the actors too - Father Julian is played by Ricardo Darin (‘The Secret in their Eyes’), Father Nicolas - Jeremie Renier (‘The Kid with a Bike’) - whilst Martina Gusman who plays the community worker Luciana also appeared in Trapero’s two recent films.

We should expect political intrigue, then, but most of all we should expect drama.

Critics

open_quote This hard-hitting tale of Catholic priests working in the slums of Argentina thrills from start to finish close_quote Phillip French, Observer


Trailer


Comments

comments powered by Disqus

Find A Film

Search over 1375 films in the Keswick Film Club archive.


Film Festival

Festival Logo

27 Feb - 1 Mar 2020


Friends

KFC is friends with Caldbeck Area Film Society and Brampton Film Club and members share benefits across all organisations


Awards

Keswick Film Club won the Best New Film Society at the British Federation Of Film Societies awards in 2000.

Since then, the club has won Film Society Of The Year and awards for Best Programme four times and Best Website twice.

We have also received numerous Distinctions and Commendations in categories including marketing, programming and website.

Talking Pictures Talking Pictures The KFC Newsletter
Links Explore the internet with Keswick Film Club
Find Us On Facebook