Cenizas del Paraíso
| Ashes of Paradise | |
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| Directed by | Marcelo Piñeyro |
| Produced by | Marcelo Pavan |
| Written by |
Aída Bortnik Marcelo Piñeyro |
| Starring |
Héctor Alterio Cecilia Roth Leonardo Sbaraglia Daniel Kuzniecka Leticia Brédice Nicolás Abeles |
| Music by | Osvaldo Montes |
| Cinematography | Alfredo F. Mayo |
| Edited by | Juan Carlos Macías |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 minutes |
| Country | Argentina |
| Language | Spanish |
Ashes of Paradise (Spanish: Cenizas del Paraíso) is a 1997 Argentine film directed by Marcelo Piñeyro. It tells in flashbacks how the untroubled private happiness of a family – a judge and his three grown-up sons – crumbles between loyalty and betrayal, blind trust and suspicions.
The film won several awards, among them a renowned Goya Award, for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera de Habla Hispana). It was Argentina's official submission for the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but did not receive a nomination for the award.
The film opens with the fall of the respected judge Costa Makantasis (Héctor Alterio) from the Federal Courthouse. Next, his oldest son Pablo (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is seen dragging the body of young and beautiful Ana Muro (Leticia Brédice) through the house in which he lives with his two younger brothers.
Two different judges begin to investigate the two deaths. It is soon assumed that Costa Makantasis committed suicide. The case of Ana Muro, however, investigated by Beatriz Teller (Cecilia Roth), is complicated by the fact that all three sons confess the murder, each claiming that he acted alone and that the other two are innocent; and really some evidence speaks against each one of them. In addition, they urge Teller to believe that their father was murdered and that his case also requires investigation. Teller, on the other hand, is pressured by her superiors to hand over the case of the three brothers to the judge assigned to Costa Makantasis' apparent suicide. Fearing that a dirty truth behind the supposed suicide shall be covered up, she risks her career by rejecting to give up her case.
Combining cutbacks with segments of the investigations and hearings, the film sets to unravelling the story leading up to the deaths. The remaining film is divided into four unequal parts, each dedicated to one of the sons and Ana Muro. In each part, fragments of the story are shown from the perspective of the respective character, combining to the complete picture only at the end of the film.
It becomes apparent that Costa Makantasis had investigated Ana Muro's father, the powerful businessman Francisco Muro (Jorge Marrale), suspecting him to be involved in corruption and even murder. Unbeknown to the two, Makantasis' youngest son, Alejandro (Nicolás Abeles), and Ana Muro fell in love with each other, and Ana Muro moved in with Alejandro and his brothers. When Costa Makantasis found out that Ana was Francisco Muro's daughter, he was concerned, but believed that their private and his professional affairs with the Muro family should and could remain separate. For a short time, everything seemed perfect: Alejandro and Ana were a happy couple, and the Makantasis family celebrated the father's anniversary with a frolicsome party.
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Wikipedia