Argentina has announced today that the feature film El Ángel by Luis Ortega will represent the South American nation at the 91st edition of the Academy Awards in the foreign language film competition.
The film, which had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard competition at last May’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival, is based in the true story of the Argentine serial killer Carlos Robledo Puch.
Set in Buenos Aires in 1971, Carlitos is a seventeen-year-old youth. As a young boy, he coveted other people’s things, but it wasn’t until his early adolescence that his true calling—to be a thief—manifested itself. When he meets Ramon at his new school, Carlitos is immediately drawn to him. Together they will embark on a journey of discoveries, love and crime. Killing is just a random offshoot of the violence, which continues to escalate until Carlitos is finally apprehended.
Because of his angelic appearance, the press dubs Carlitos "The Angel of Death." Altogether, he is believed to have committed over forty thefts and eleven homicides. Today, after more than forty-five years in jail, Robledo Puch is the longest-serving prisoner in the history of Argentina.
The film will be released this November in the U.S. by the hand of distribution company The Orchard. Argentina has been nominated seven times, and is the only Latin American country to have won an Academy Award, and twice, for Best Foreign Language Film: in 1985 for Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story and in 2009 for Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes.
