Watch Buenos Aires
Argentina’s capital could almost be mistaken for a European metropolis but its beat – like its tango – is undeniably South American. Here’s how to get to the heart of this seductive city. By Hazel Flynn.
With its little-known cast and obscure locations, there’s a freshness to the comedy Finding Sofia (2016), writer and director Nico Casavecchia’s featurefilm debut. Through a mix of Spanish and English dialogue, it follows hapless animator Alex, who impulsively flies from New York to Buenos Aires to surprise his online confidante, Sofia – only to find himself on an island in the Tigre Delta, on the city’s outskirts, with Sofia, her “genius” artist boyfriend and his adoring assistant.
Also consider…
◖ The Secret in Their Eyes (2009): Not to be confused with the panned 2015 Hollywood remake, this Academy Award winner (Foreign Language Film) about a retired criminal court employee haunted by a brutal unsolved case is at once a thriller, romance, crime procedural and commentary on Argentina’s recent dark past.
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For locals (porteños or “people of the port”), tango is more than a style of music and dance – it’s an expression of the soul. The compilation album Cafe de los Maestros (2005) gives a review of its golden age from the 1930s to the 1950s with 27 seminal tracks.
Also consider…
◖ Astor Piazzolla: The Ultimate Collection (2014): The late nuevo tango pioneer Piazzolla was criticised for his innovative jazz-influenced arrangements but became revered as tango’s most influential composer and virtuoso.
Club Secreto Vol. II (2017): The latest album from the trio Gotan Project continues tango’s evolution with an electronic take on its distinctive rhythms.
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Argentine journalist Tomás Eloy Martínez fled his home under threat of death in 1975, spending most of his remaining years abroad. He became an internationally renowned novelist whose birth country was always at the heart of his work. The Tango Singer (translated into English in 2006 by Anne McLean) tells the story of a strange, dreamlike search through Buenos Aires for the elusive title character, while paying tribute to Martínez’s fellow countryman and literary giant Jorge Luis Borges.
Also consider…
◖ Ficciones (1944): Poet, essayist and short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges refused to be bound by genre. Is his writing sci-fi? Surreal fantasy? Playful puzzles? Detective stories? It’s all those and more – and this famed collection of short “fictions” is a good introduction.