Roma

Synopsis

Young journalist Manuel Cueto (Juan Diego Botto) is sent by his publisher boss to help the solitary novelist Joaquín Góñez (José Sacristán) finish his long-overdue last book, which will be an autobiography. Brought out of his loneliness by the young man, Joaquín reminisces about his youth and experiences in Buenos Aires during the 1960s and 70s before reloctaing to Spain, as well as his intense relationship with his mother Roma, who was and still is the most important person in Joaquín's life.

Cast

Juan Diego Botto as Manuel Cueto/Joaco

Susú Pecoraro as Roma Di Toro

José Sacristán as Joaquín Góñez

Agustín Garvíe as Joaco

Vando Villamil as Áteo Di Toro

Marcela Kloosterboer as Reneé

Maximiliano Ghione as Guido

Marina Glezer as Alicia

Gustavo Garzón as Joaquín father

Carla Crespo as Betty

Marcos Mundstock as Gustavo Smirnoff

Raúl Rizzo as Doctor Cassano

Jean Pierre Noher as Pando

Alberto Jiménez as Publisher (son)

María Galiana as Portera

Jane Darwell as Ma Joad (archive footage)

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad (archive footage)

Critical reception

Jonathan Holland, film critic for Variety magazine and reporting from the San Sebastián International Film Festival, liked the film and wrote, "Argentine helmer Adolfo Aristarain turns a compassionate eye toward his own spiritual and political education in the rangy, quietly affecting and rewardingly intense Roma, his most achieved work to date. Lengthy, but not over-long, rites-of-passage yarn takes one young man's life as the focal point for the struggles which tore Argentina apart in the late '60s and '70s, as well as being an homage to the dangerous pleasures of self-discovery. Film garnered positive reactions at home on its spring release and has the emotional coherence to strike universal chords offshore".