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Joel Joel

Carlos Sorín / Argentina / 2018 / 100 min / Spanish

A heart-rending and complex drama about overcoming prejudices within the contexts of a family and broader community.

festivals, awards Rotterdam 2018, Havana 2018 (Best Screenplay)

IMDb

So there he is at the table, their brand-new adopted child. Suspicious look, messy hair. Joel is nine – older than Cecilia and Diego had expected. He doesn’t say much more than 'yes' and 'no'. Building a new family life apparently involves a lot of trial and error. A bigger problem is that Joel does talk at school, where he boasts about leading a gangster lifestyle and taking cocaine. The other parents protest about the bad influence he is having on their children.

“The park that my three-year-old grandson used to play in was also visited by a boy whose mother was HIV-positive. The parents of the children playing in the park feared that the boy would infect their children. I found their fear unfounded, but at the same time a thought occurred to me: ‘What if he bites my grandson?' I had to place this dual morality in the centre of my film.” (Carlos Sorín)

Carlos Sorín
Born in 1944, in Buenos Aires, Sorín is a filmmaker, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer. His feature film debut, A King and His Movie, received five Argentine Film Critics Association Silver Condor Awards. Winner of more than 26 awards, Minimal Stories is his most acclaimed feature.

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