Whisky

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Whisky" is a most unconventional Uruguayan film that played in art houses 
two years ago. Using minimalist techniques associated with the U.S. 
filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Finland's Aki Kaurismaki, it tells the story of 
Jacobo Koller (Andrés Pazos), a sixty year old Jewish man who runs a tiny 
ramshackle stocking factory in Montevideo with three female employees. Two 
operate the ancient machines. The other is his faithful assistant Marta 
(Mirella Pascual), who is nearly as old as Jacobo and attends to his every 
need.

Jacobo's mother died a year earlier and it is now time for her unveiling, a 
Jewish custom that mandates the placing of a tombstone over the departed 
family member's grave. For this occasion, Jacobo's younger brother Herman 
(Jorge Bolani) will be coming up from Brazil where he runs his own stocking 
factory. Since Jacobo apparently feels ashamed of his bachelor existence, 
he persuades Marta to pretend that she is his wife during his brother's visit.

The plot has obvious similarities to "Go For Zucker," last year's film from 
Germany that also involves a reunion of two Jewish brothers and an element 
of deception, in this case one brother?a Communist and an 
atheist?representing himself as devout in order to satisfy the requirements 
of his recently departed mother's will. Unlike this film, the humor in 
"Whisky" is bone dry. It also does not involve farcical plot twists?the 
story moves along in a linear fashion not unlike the aging machines in 
Jacobo's workshop. Finally, there is no epiphany in the final scene as the 
characters reconcile with each other. The Jacobo we meet at the beginning 
of the film?taciturn, depressed and aloof?is the same Jacobo that we see at 
its conclusion.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/04/02/whisky/