Official Selection at Venice Film Festival, FAMILIA RODANTE (Rolling Family) is a moving road movie about family relationships, the third film from acclaimed Argentinean director Pablo Trapero, based on his own experiences and the anecdotes of family and close friends.
It's Grandma's 84th birthday and the disparate family gathers to pay homage to their matriarch, unaware of the bombshell she's about to drop... She's been invited to be the matron of honour at her niece's wedding in the remote village where she was brought up, over a thousand kilometres away from Buenos Aires, and expects them all to go with her. Unable to defend themselves against the heavy dose of emotional blackmail she lays on them, thirteen members of four generations of the same family cram into the back of a twenty year old camper van and set off.
In this confined space, as the days pass and the van hobbles its way towards its destination, emotions ride high and old grudges and jealousies start bubbling to the surface, along with well kept secrets and sexual tensions, new and past.
Excruciating and hilarious in equal measure in its raw depiction of family politics, Trapero's own grandmother, a non-professional actress, plays the family matriarch lending the film reality, charm and sympathy.
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Reviews
"Argentinian writer-director Pablo Trapero ups the ante with one of the finest films released here this year... Hilarious and poignant... Fresh, authentic and relevant... If only Britain were producing as much truly rewarding work as Argentina!"
GEOFF ANDREW, TIME OUT
"A real treat from the terrific Argentine director Pablo Trapero... This is fabulously earthy and warmly recommended, like MONSOON WEDDING with grit and chickens"
TIM ROBEY, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
"Amid the family friction and raging hormones, a humane portrait emerges of a rugged rural culture not usually seen in Argentine films"
THE TIMES
"Another low-budget gem from the New Argentine cinema... a generous-hearted comedy... buoyed by the spirited performance of the filmmaker's own 84-year-old grandmother"
TOM DAWSON, TOTAL FILM
"a delightful, natural affair... crammed with minute, humorous observation"
DAN FAINARU, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
"Beautifully performed... colourful, perceptive, honest and utterly refreshing"