The Distinguished Citizen ( Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn,2016) : Argentina

Reviewed by Martha Castaneda at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2017

There is no place like home, not for Daniel (Oscar Martinez) a renown Noble prize winner for literature.  He had several invitations from around the world to be a guest speaker, he refuses all but one.

Daniels hometown, Salsa, Argentina invites him to receive the town’s Distinguished Citizen Award. After being away for forty years, he leaves his beautiful home in Barcelona, Spain to return to his small rural hometown Salsa, six hours from the capitol Buenos Aires. There the townsfolk want to express how proud they are to have such a celebrity in their midst. The Major welcomes him with open arms. The town was in the midst of preparing for a festival that evening to honor him with their prestigous Award. After the gala, Daniel begins to notice that  all his old friends and local townsfolk have not changed. Everything from the hotel he was staying at, the restaurants, the bars and even the school he attended remained in the same old customary and traditional style as the past. His ex-girlfriend married his best friend and their daughter was a promiscuous young vixen with her eye on him. She eventually was successful in lureing Daniel for sex. His first mistake, Daniel felt terrible about having sex with the daughter of best friend and old girl friend and he was filled with regret and guilt. His second and most costly mistake was in the town hall where he was scheduled to speak. Daniel expressed his opinion about their old fashioned town, stuck in the past with a backward style of living. Immediately he was obviously no longer welcome and they wanted him gone. Before he left he accepted an invitation to go wild bore hunting, little did he know that the intended wild bore, was actually him!. Despite a gun shot to his chest, he survives. However Daniel gets the last laugh, because from this strange experience he overcomes his current writers block and writes a best-seller!

The filmmakers did a wonderful job. The twist in the end was great. The story-line was clear and easy to follow and the film makers did an excellent job on the cinematography. Overall it was entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable, I’d most definitely recommend it.