By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/22/23 – The Tango- arguably one of the many building blocks of Argentinian society and culture, still manages to bring people closer toward one another; class and race notwithstanding. The new film Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires catapults viewers feet first into the illustrious dance against a backdrop of a deeply emotional and profound story of Ariel and the historical trauma he faces and attempts to reconcile.
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While the movie has an ethereal lightness to it, Back to Buenos Aires highlights the aftereffects of the dictatorship of the 1970’s and early 1980’s in Argentina. Writer and director Alison Murray reveals, “I ended up moving to Argentina and I was a little aware of the socio-political history of the country, but it was only after I was living there that I really learned the whole story of what happened during the horrendous dictatorship of the late 70s and early 80s that impacted a lot of my husband’s family and many people that I know. I felt like I wanted to share that story with an international audience who aren’t aware but do it in such a way that it is not such a depressing turn off. I wanted to show my love for tango and provide a love letter to Buenos Aires and combine those 2 elements to make the darker story a little easier to swallow.”
In the midst of Ariel searching relentlessly for answers of origin, the dance never stops. The film includes the most gorgeous Tango scenes of our time. Murray elaborates on the behind-the-scenes aspects of shooting such elaborate scenes. She divulges, “I love to film dance; I studied dance before I studied filmmaking. I started out working on a show on BBC in England called Dance for the Camera, so I really crafted my skills as a director filming dance, and I feel like the 2 mediums really lend themselves to each other; they both deal with movement. I kind of thought about choreographing the camera movement along with the dance movements. We worked with a Steadicam operator, and he came in, very far in advance, and did literal dance choreography where he was learning his ‘steps’ and where he needed to be with the camera in relation to what was happening with the dancers; it was all very structured.”
Be sure to enjoy Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires on select streaming platforms and by finding the movie on Instagram @arieltangomovie.
