White Elephant

This Potent Argentinean Drama Examines Faith Amidst The Slums Of Buenos Aires
The Argentinean film "White Elephant" details the struggles of a local priest servicing a Buenos Aries slum. While its depiction of poverty and violence are potent and unpleasant, I was struck also by the film's humanity. Despite the inherent danger and lawlessness ever present, there is a pleasing balance of people dedicated to making the shantytown more habitable. In an era where reform and repair have been repeatedly promised to this impoverished community, they have learned that any such commitment is short-lived at best. The title "White Elephant" refers to a massive unfinished hospital that serves as the centerpiece for the rundown neighborhood. A beacon of failed promises, it is the staging ground and home of the clergy and volunteers that have dedicated themselves to the underprivileged. Battling disease, rival crime factions, drug trafficking, and a militia that invades the slums with abandon, the priest is a revered and respected presence.

Ricardo Darin (The...

A portrayal of human hypocrisy
Argentinean director Pablo Trapero brings to the screen a very dark seemingly hopeless disparity between the rich and the poor. Written by Trapero along with Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui and Santiago Mitre, the story will burn on the viewer's mind the hypocrisy of disparity between the rich and the poor.

The film opens in the Peruvian jungle where Father Nicolás (Jérémie Renier) witnesses the brutal massacre of his friends and congregation while he alone survives, leaving a profound sense of guilt for not having also died in the catastrophe. Father Nicolás's beloved friend and confessor Father Julián (Ricardo Darín) brings Nicolás to the "Villa Virgin", a `favela' like shantytown in the slums of Buenos Aires near an abandoned huge project for a hospital that was started decades ago in Buenos Aires, seen today as a typical "white elephant", a useless structure that now houses the poverty stricken inhabitants. Drugs...

"I am full of rage...I don't want to end up hating everyone"
In the last ten years Ricardo Darin has been one of the most prominent Argentinean actors, following the steps of legends, such as Hector Alterio. In this film, he once again shows why this is the case when he plays the role of father Julian, a priests working in one of the many "villas" that have become commonplace not only in Argentina, but in many Latin American countries. Many of you may have been exposed to this connected to the "favelas" in Brazil by the movie City of God (English Subtitled). In this case Julian's goal is to finish the construction of a hospital that would be the biggest one in the continent. The project has started and stalled several times through time, going back to the early 1900s, and the building has become known as the White Elephant.

Besides the challenge of completing a project like this, Julian faces the challenge of being terminally ill and having to keep that truth...

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