Institute History
Description
Thousands of miles south of Buenos Aires stretch the steppes of southern Patagonia, a vast desert of infinite mesas and endless roads where people seem dwarfed and yet that much more precious to each other. An acutely sensitive, gently comic road movie with Zen underpinnings, Historias Minimas mines this rich metaphorical terrain to tell three ironic, poignant stories about human resilience and the precariousness of desire.
Setting out toward the provincial town of San Julian, three vibrant characters undertake seemingly mundane journeys that turn out to be subtly life changing. A lonely, fastidious traveling salesman quests for the perfect cream cake to win the widow of his dreams. A grizzly grandfather hitchhikes to town to find his forgotten lost dog, Badface, and seek forgiveness. A poor young mother hopes to win the grand prize-a microprocessor-as a contestant on a TV game show. Like turtles patiently inching ahead, what they gain may simply be the satisfaction of fully lived moments. In other words, the journey is the reward.
Shooting in an immediate, improvisational style that emphasizes the intoxicating light in the landscape, the uniquely talented Carlos Sorin employs a colorful cast of local nonactors, whose unpretentious lives inspired this salt-of-the-earth tale.