The second film in three years directed by Daniel Burman to be screened at the Wisconsin Film Festival, Derecho de Familia follows the life of a young and laid-back Buenos Aires attorney who gets married and starts a family in the shadow of his father's similar path through life.
This lead character is portrayed by Daniel Hendler, who played a similar role in El abrazo partido, or Lost Embrace, which screened in Madison in 2005. Along with Esperando al MesÃas (Waiting for the Messiah), also directed by Burman, these films complete a thematic trilogy exploring the lives of young Jewish men in Argentina.
Derecho de Familia, also titled Family Law, debuted at the 2006 Berlinale, was released in Argentina shortly thereafter, and has since been screened at fests around the world, picking up three awards last year at the Mar Del Plata Film Festival.
Here is the official festival description of the film:
Hendler plays the neurotic and uptight lawyer Ariel Perelman, who has big shoes to fill as the son of a genial and legendary lawyer (Arturo Goetz). Ariel's life, the details of which are observed in affectionate detail, changes when he marries a lovely Pilates instructor and has a child of his own. The three generations of Perelmans confound each other with how much they need to learn about being a family. The subtle interactions between fathers and sons are so perfectly acted and written that the smallest exchange is fascinating.
Derecho de Familia was Argentina's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film in this year's Academy Awards. A subtitled trailer for the film follows below.
