The-Boss---Latin Film The-Boss---Latin Film The-Boss_Latin cinema The-Boss---Latin Film
  • Guadalajara International Film Festival

    Best Opera Prima, Best Actor
  • Mar del Plata International Film Festival

    SAGAI Award for Best Actor

  • Busan International Film Festival

    Audience Award

  • Punta del Este International Film Festival

    Audience Award

  • Pantalla Pinamar Film Festival

    Silver Balance Award
  • Havana International Film Festival

  • Warsaw International Film Festival 


  • Chicago International Film Festival

  • Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Pricing
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In Spanish with English subtitles

With Joaquín Furriel, Luis Ziembrowski, Mónica Laraina, Germán De Silva, Guillermo Pfening

Based on a true story, The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime is a neo-realistic portrait of the inhumane work environment, and the power imbalances existing between worker and employer.

The multiple award-winning film tells the unsettling story of Hermógenes, a humble illiterate farmhand who arrives in Buenos Aires in search of a job.

Having been filled with self-deprecation and feelings of uselessness ever since he was stamped “not apt” on his military papers because of his limp, Hermógenes doesn’t expect much. So when Don Latuada puts him in charge of one of his butcher shops he is extremely grateful. In exchange, he forces him to disguise and sell rotten meat while subjecting him, by means of pressure and extortion, to a modern day slavery situation. The overwhelming manipulation and escalating cruelty will inevitably lead to tragedy…

Press

“An exposé of modern day slavery.” – John Hopewell, Variety

“First time feature writer-director Sebastian Schindel very delicately tackles some of the thorniest issues facing Argentina, among them regionalism, class discrepancies, corruption and judicial rigidity and does so in an unfussy style suited to the material.” – Elizabeth Kerr, Hollywood Reporter

About the Director
Sebastián Schindel was born in 1975 in Buenos Aires. He studied philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, before graduating as a cinematographer from the ENERC. He is founding member and manager of the film production company Magoya Films, where he has directed and produced various documentary films, including the multi-awarded Mundo Alas and El rascacielos latino. In 2004 he won the ARTE France Award for Best Young Producer. The Boss is his narrative feature film debut.

In addition to filmmaking, Schindel has worked as a professor of Documentary Film at ENERC since 2009 and at the University of San Martin since 2014.

Notes on Film

The film is based on a very thorough investigation on a real event that happened in Buenos Aires 10 years ago. Almost every scene in the film is inspired by real facts concerning this event or based on well-documented daily practices of the “meat business” and its environment (meat distributors, illegal labor, migrant domestic workers, etc.).

During the research for the film, we had access to files related to the true “Hermógenes” murder trial. From there we got the quote “Life is a destiny to fulfill”, which is repeated again and again throughout the court hearings. In all his ignorance and simplicity Hermógenes was aware of the inexorability of fate.

Hermógenes is a typical farmhand from “the pampas” (the vast fertile lowlands of Argentina), who is immersed in a breathtaking game that intertwines inescapable despair, doom and death. Hermógenes is not only illiterate, but also “inept.” This inability to “fit in” is like a birthmark that turns out to be not only a stigma throughout his life, but also an intimate personal explanation for his misfortunes.

The local “peón” (farmhand) has a total dependence upon his “patrón” (boss), a dependency that is not only economic but also cultural, emotional and even psychological. But this dependence is also assumed to come with certain responsibilities for the boss, who is supposed to ensure the welfare of his laborers. For the “peon”, the boss is not a mere employer in the contractual sense of the term, but a father, a protector, almost a god. It is within this frame of mind that Hermógenes moved to the big city in search of a “patrón” willing to accept him, someone he can rely on. When he is taken in by Don Latuada, Hermógenes offers nothing less than his absolute and unquestioning fidelity. As times goes by, Hermógenes’ total submission encouraged Don Latuada to extend the limits of his abuse, certain of his impunity.