El Custodio
by Rodrigo Moreno

As el custodio, it's Ruben's duty to keep the Minister of Planning under constant surveillance. Although Ruben must always be present, he must also go completely un-noticed. A shadow, Ruben witnesses everything from the sidelines, as if life was passing by some meters away from him. Yet, despite his insider's view, he never understands clearly what's going on. Single Ruben is hardly even a protagonist of his own lonely life, involving a mentally unstable sister and a ditzy niece, the sale of illegal arms and cheap prostitutes. Plus the monotonous routine of being a bodyguard and the occasional humiliation from the Minister or his family... Some jobs result in almost replacing a life for another. Such pressure can ultimately explode. This is Ruben's inevitable outcome.
»El Custodio« is Rodrigo Moreno's first feature film. His original
screenplay won the 2005 Sundance/NHK Award for Best Latin American
Script.
Moreno collaborated as writer and director with Ulises
Rosell and Andrés Tambornino on the 2002 feature »El Descanso« (Sweet
Repose), an offbeat comedy which won Best Film at Canada's Images du
Monde Festival. Moreno also wrote and directed »Compañeros«, the last
segment of the 1998 episodic feature »Mala Epoca« (Bad Times). Moreno had
previously made several short films, his first being 1993's »Nosotros«,
which won Best Film at the Bilbao Festival (Spain), and which was also
screened in the Berlin Festival Forum.
Moreno was born in Buenos
Aires in 1972. He graduated from the directing program of the
Argentinian capital's Universidad del Cine, where he has been teaching
screen-writing and directing since 1996.
Alfred Bauer Preis
Berlinale 2006
Golden Mayahuel for the best
Iberoamerican film
FIPRESCI Award
Guadalajara
2006
Best Film
Best Director
Best Actor
Critics Award
Oscarcito
Cine Ceará, Brasil
Julio Chavez - Ruben
Osmar Nunez - The Minister
Marcelo D'Andrea - Lamas
Elvira Onetto - Della (Minister's Wife)
Director
& Scriptwriter: Rodrigo Moreno
Director of Photography:
Barbara Alvarez
Art Director: Gonzalo Delgado Galiana
Sound
Design: Catriel Vildosola
Editor: Nicolas Goldbart
Producers: Hernan Musaluppi (Rizoma Films, Argentina), Natacha Cervi (Rizoma
Films, Argentina), Luis Sartor (Zarlek Producciones, Argentina)
Co-Producers: Christoph Friedel (Pandora Film, Germany), Elise
Jalladeau (Charivari Films, France), Fernando Epstein (Control Z
Films, Uruguay), Maíz Producciones SA (Argentina)
Format: 35 mm / 24 fps / 1:1.85 / Colour / Dolby Digital
Length: 93 min
Original language: spanish
Original title: El Custodio


