Waiting for the Messiah

Argentinean director Daniel Burman’s semi-autobiographical story centers on a Buenos Aires Jew in his early twenties who sets out in search of his destiny and of his city. Sick of a well-ordered life of Hebrew club meetings, family shabbat dinners and work at his father’s kosher restaurant, Ariel gets a job on the graveyard shift at a video production company. There he meets an exciting older woman, Laura, who is bisexual and from a Catholic background. She asks Ariel to work with her on a documentary about an unemployed former bank teller named Santamaría, who ekes out a living on the margins of Buenos Aires. While Ariel and Laura follow Santamaría day in and day out, people in the Jewish part of town are getting ready for Hannukah. Everyone misses Ariel, especially Estela, the beautiful young woman he has known all his life. Back at the restaurant, the first Hannukah candle is lit and Ariel’s chair remains empty.