Adios Buenos Aires

by German Kral

A subtle and charming tragicomic story set admits the political upheaval of the economic crises. Helmed by the director of the award-winning documentary Our Last Tango that delighted audiences around the world.

Buenos Aires, November 2001. Argentina is embroiled in crisis. The country‘s economy is stagnating and the peso is plunging deeper and deeper, while the anger and distrust of the Argentinian people towards their corrupt government is growing steadily. In the midst of these troubled times, the Vecinos de Pompeya – a five-piece tango band – are trying to keep their heads above water. They usually perform in a small, poorly attended pub and are often paid with empanadas instead of pesos. But what can they do? Leave the country? That‘s exactly what Julio the bandoneon player has in mind. He plans to emigrate to Germany together with his daughter Paula and his mother Dorothea. Julio sets about taking care of his last affairs in Buenos Aires – but he can‘t get away from the city so easily.

Genre / Language / Length
Drama / Spanish / 93 minutes
Original title
Adios Buenos Aires
directed by
German Kral (OUR LAST TANGO, MÚSICA CUBANA)
screenplay by
Stephan PuchnerFernando CastetsGerman Kral
produced by
Lailaps Pictures, German Kral Filmproduktion
Cast
  • Diego Cremonesi
  • Marina Bellati
  • Regina Lamm
  • Manuel Vicente
  • Rafael Spregelburd
  • Carlos Portaluppi
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Press Quotes

"German Kral weaves his love of Buenos Aires and the tango into haunting images in this film. The result is great cinema."
Tangodanza

"The film is a tribute to the Argentine capital - and to the tango, which resounds again and again and tells of love, pain and passion."
Hamburger Morgenpost

"Feel-good cinema that can give courage when difficult times come."
TZ

"You only want one thing after watching this wonderful musical film: to go to the next milonga."
Vogue

"In Cremonesi, Kral has found a leading actor who embodies world-weariness just as credibly as the boundless love of the tango."
Express Cologne

"Director German Kral mixes with melancholy and determination famous tango lyrics with the plot of his film - poetic."
Barbara

"ADIÓS BUENOS AIRES vacillates between escapism and combativeness: "Difficulties are opportunities," Julio says at one point. And although the film is set a good 20 years ago in another country, it fits wonderfully into the here and now, can give courage and show: It's always worth it to work for a better life."
Muenchner Merkur

"The tango is probably... one of the reasons why Argentines love their country so much. In ADIÓS BUENOS AIRES it is another protagonist” -
Indiekino

"Kral's look back is like a good tango: melancholy, sexy, twisty. A tragicomic film about the complicated love of one's homeland."
Badische Neueste Nachrichten

"With pleasant ease, German Kral develops his multi-layered characters; a few brushstrokes are enough to draw believable types. A first-class ensemble provides the necessary empathy with South American charm."
Doppelpunkt

"ADIÓS BUENOS AIRES is not only a film for lovers of tango. It subtly tells about the power and the melancholy of this dance and its music! WELL WORTH SEEING!"
To Go Berlin

“The sentimental drama exudes something cheerful in its lightness. At the same time, the soulful and poetic lyrics tear of love and passion."
Abendzeitung Muenchen

" ADIÓS BUENOS AIRES is an affectionate film told by German Kral and his team. With fine Argentine humor, in which even the tango lyrics are adapted to the current time. Entertaining, touching and at the same time with fantastic punchlines, this film casts a spell over you."
BR Klassik

“Told with quiet wit, bathed in warm light and cast on the canvas in pastel shades with occasional splashes of bold color, German Kral takes a look back at troubled times ... as if time had stood still somewhere between the 1950s and 1960s.”
Kino-Zeit

“The music also explains the homesickness and wanderlust with which his films turn to this yearning music, which at the same time radiates something comforting, despite all the suffering also life-affirming.”
film-rezensionen.de

“Only someone who carries the love for tango in his innermost like Germán Kral can create such characters, so lifelike, so differentiated and so fired by an inner flame…. A wonderfully romantic homage to the tango and the city of Buenos Aires”
film-rezensionen.de

“A sentimental insight into a society marked by many contradictions and facets, into Argentina's often repeated economic crisis situation, and a finale that, despite everything - or precisely because of it - is full of hope.”
NDR

“German Kral develops his multi-layered characters with pleasant ease; a few brushstrokes are enough to draw believable Charackters… A first-class ensemble provides the necessary empathy with South American charm.”
Programmkino.de

“Songs and story alike tell of love, passion and pain.”
Programmkino.de

“Without solidarity kitsch, it shows how individual and collective survival structures function in extreme crisis situations - and what role friendships, love and, above all, music play in this.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung

Selected Festivals & Awards

Miami International Film Festival
Beijing International Film Festival
FILMKUNSTFEST MV Schwerin | Audience Award | awarded
Latin Film Fest in Warsaw | Audience Award | awarded
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