Life According to Muriel (La vida según Muriel)

Director: Eduardo Milewicz
Screenwriters: Eduardo Milewicz, Susana Silvestre

Institute History

  • 1998 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Eduardo Milewicz’s first feature, Life According to Muriel, is a captivating and charming film that features sympathetic characters and dramatic situations. Set in a remote mountainous area of Argentina, the story depicts the plight of two young single mothers whose lives intersect, and their growing relationship in the face of adversity. Laura (Soledad Villamil) is sick of men and Buenos Aires. She heads south, along with her nine-year-old daughter Muriel (played with remarkable control by Florencia Camiletti), the narrator of the story. Along the way, they stop by a lake, and the car accidentally sinks with all their possessions and money.

They search for assistance and find a run-down, fire-damaged hotel where Mirta (Inés Estévez) and her two children, Jimena and Manuel, live. Mirta is reluctant to help, but she gives in and puts them up temporarily. The two women, initially suspicious of each other, soon realize they are kindred spirits. Both have been abandoned by their husbands, and both dream of a better life. As their friendship develops, the women decide to renovate and reopen the hotel. Mirta enlists Tony (Federico Olivera) in the project. When the hotel is ready, along comes Ernesto (Jorge Perugoría), Muriel’s stray father. Now a successful photographer, Ernesto wants to recover lost affection. In the end, Laura and Mirta turn their adversity into optimism and rekindle their dreams. Milewicz treats the stories of these women with refreshing sensibility and candor.


Eduardo Milewicz, Director
Eduardo Milewicz was born in Buenos Aires in 1958 and studied film at the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía. He has written many award-winning short stories, published in Pagina 12. Milewicz has also written a novel, Bulevar García, and has taught film-related subjects and seminars. His first short film, Black Silk, won several awards. He directed a very notable TV adaptation of Martín Fierro,
in which he also played the protagonist. Life According to Muriel is his first feature film.

— Ramiro Puerta., Toronto Film Festival

Screening Details

Credits

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