Set in 1960s Argentina, the film looks at the world through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy who dreams of a happy family life and of becoming an astronaut.
Since his mother left him at the age of three, Valentin has lived with his grandmother. His father visits occasionally but is mostly away on business or out looking for a new girlfriend. Valentin is lonely and constantly searching for love and affection.
His passion is to become an astronaut and he invents a strict training programme to realise his dream. With his friend Rufo he shares his thoughts and hopes for a real family. In search of the truth about his mother’s disappearance, nobody around him is willing to talk about the past. However, when his grandmother dies, he realises he will have to find the answers on his own.
London Film Festival Review – Maria Delgado
Eight-year old Valentin (Rodrigo Noya) aspires to be a NASA astronaut but as his cranky, recently widowed grandmother (Carmen Maura) keeps reminding him that is not a realistic aspiration in late 1960s Argentina (the film is set not insignificantly in the year of Che Guevara’s death). Valentin however is not easily daunted and he soldiers on determined to prove both his grandmother and his womanising father (a revelatory performance by Agresti in what is evidently a partly autobiographical work) wrong. Sumptuously shot in rich hues by José Luis Cajaraville, and featuring a lush score by Paul M. van Bruggen, Agresti crafts a witty, affecting feature which deftly chronicles the rituals and routines of Valentin’s day-to-day existence in revealing the poignant loneliness of a boy enveloped by family secrets and half-truths.
Aided by an impeccable cast, including the mesmeric Carmen Maura cast against type as the ailing grandmother, Julieta Cardinali as the latest in a long list of girlfriends introduced to Valentin by his father as a potential mother-to-be; and, crucially, newcomer Rodrigo Noya as the enterprising (and gloriously cute) youngster determined not to let family doubts and prejudices get in his way, Agresti delivers a fresh and amusing variation on the premise that growing up is never easy.
Alejandro Agresti – director/father
Alejandro Agresti is one of Argentina’s most acclaimed filmmakers, with a world-class body of work to his name. He is also a prolific screenwriter, actor, producer, cinematographer and composer. His films include El Zoológico y el cementerio (1978), Sola (1979), La Araña (1980), Tu sabes mi nombre (1981), Los Espectros de la recoleta (1981), La Neutrónica explotó en Burzaco (1984), El Hombre que ganó la razón (1986) and Boda Secreta (1988), winner of the Best Film award at the Dutch Film Festival. The same year he wrote and directed El Amor es una Mujer Gorda (Love is a Fat Woman), which won the Special Jury Prize at the Dutch Film Festival in 1988.
Agresti’s credits through the 190s include City Life (1990), Luba (1990), Figaro Stories (1991), Everybody Wants to Help Ernest (1991), A Lonely Race (1992) and Modern Crimes (1992) for which he was nominated for Best Film at the international Fantasy Film Festival. El Acto en Cuestión (1993) won the Catalan Screenwriters Critic and Writer’s Association Prize.
He wrote, directed, starred in and composed the music for Buenos Aires Vice Versa (1996). The film won three awards during the Mar del Plata Film Festival, the Special Jury Prize at the Havana Film Festival and two Silver Condors at the Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards.
El Viento se llevó lo qué (Wind with the Gone), 1998, won, among other awards, the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and Silver Hugo award at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Among his most recent works are: La Cruz (1998), A Night With Sabrina Love (2000), and, of course, Valentin (2002).
Agresti is currently filming Perfume de los libros, due out next year.