Anita (2009) User Reviews

Anita, or how life is sometimes so unfair.

[LadyPanthera · 8/10 · 31 May 2011]

So tender yet so sad. Impossible not to cry watching this movie. We should learn from Anita. Her innocence didn't let her know what was happening towards her, and she remained happy. Such an awful tragedy told in such a sweet story. Norma Aleandro, (Dora, Anita's mum) plays a tiny role in this movie, but the necessary enough to know who Anita is, and what does she feel and thinks. Dora dies in the AMIA, and then, the story begins and it is all Anita. Entirely Anita. Alejandra Manzo, the actress who plays her is great.

Awesome movie. You'll cry, I assure you that. But you won't regret of watching it. Believe me :)

The car bomb

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 9 March 2012]

Anita, a girl born with Down syndrome, is lovingly cared by her mother Dora. They live in a small department in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Buenos Aires. Dora has a small shop where she has Anita help her with menial jobs. One day, Dora must go to the Jewish Center, leaving Anita alone, but making sure the girl knows she will be back when the big hand of the clock is standing at the top. Anita, who is perhaps in her twenties, can function normally, under Dora's supervision.

Unfortunately, there is a terrorist car bomb that had targeted the Jewish Center. Anita, alone in the store, sees the shop and its contents get damaged, although nothing serious happened to her. The girl decides to venture out among the confusion and chaos in the streets. No one notices her; the girl begins to roam the streets looking for Dora. What follows is a tale of horrors Anita goes through in her quest to find her missing mother.

"Anita" directed by Marcos Carnevale, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Marcela Guerty and Lily Ann Martin. The film is a tender story about human survival for a young woman who has to fend for herself in any way she can. It is also a document about how people can see a situation such as what the girl is experiencing and not have enough sense to turn the matter into authorities, or institutions that can be of help.

Anita roams the streets not being able to find the home comforts only her mother could give her. The three individuals she becomes in contact with may be adults, but show no feelings about a terrorized girl whose mind does not allow her to express the information needed to reunite her with relatives. To the creator's credit, the film, although sentimental, does not play with the viewer's emotions in a mawkish way. Anita's journey from a well kept home to places she does not know, shows that in spite of her handicap, she is able to survive using resources no one could have guessed she had.

Mr. Carnevale has done wonders with Alejandra Manzo, who is seen as Anita. She shows a resiliency seldom seen in individuals suffering from her condition. Anita is more intelligent than what a typical person afflicted with the syndrome is likely to do. Norma Aleandro is Dora, but she only appears at the beginning of the story. The excellent Luis Luque plays Felix, the unemployed photographer with marital problems. Leonor Manso appears as Nora, the only person who got to understand the girl in spite of a shaky first impression.

The film speaks volumes about human nature as a helpless soul deals with what a cruel destiny had in store for her.

What a touching film

[enrpat-1 · 10/10 · 15 January 2010]

I just found this title and decided to see it because in the credits was the name of Norma Leandro. The fact is that the fantastic actress from Argentina is not the one who touches you and remains in your memory: is Anita (Alejandra Manzo), the girl with down syndrome, who performs a truly remarkable, emotional and touching film. The script is simple, but Marcos Carnevale, the director (Elsa & Fred), leads the story with sensibility and yet distance. It's all about this woman, Anita, who loses her mother after a bomb explosion in Buenos Aires, and gets lost in the city. During several days she walks and finds people who doesn't know what to do with her. She isn't able to say too much about what happened to her because her world was limited to her mother's company. With this few elements a great movie is done and delivered to the audience. I don't live in Argentina. But this film convinces me that in this country there is a profound sensibility that is expressed in films. A must see, if you like movies where the human beings are shown as they are, as we are.

A young woman alone in the city

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 5 August 2010]

Anita (2009) was co-written and directed by Marcos Carnevale. In this unusual Argentinian film, we follow the odyssey of a young woman with Down syndrome. Anita, played by Alejandra Manzo, lives contentedly with her mother, Dora. (Dora is played by the wonderful actor Norma Aleandro.) A tragic event sends Anita wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, armed with little more than a smile, a few words, and a loving and trusting nature.

People with Down syndrome have a range of intelligence that allows some to function fully and independently in society. (I assume this is true of Ms. Manzo, who is a professional actor.) However, Anita is clearly not in the higher range, so that her survival skills are pretty meager, and they are tested to the full when she is lost.

She survives from day to day because people feel sorry for her, and want to help her, although not always in a way that brings them much credit. (People help her, but they help her sporadically and unwillingly.)

What keeps this film from being just a feel-good movie is that the people Anita meets aren't overly kind or effusive, and they certainly aren't saintly. The good news is that no one tries to harm or harass her--they just would rather not be bothered.

We really enjoyed this film, partly because of its interesting plot. Better yet, the movie never succumbed to the temptation to make Anita perfect, or able to mystically discern things that others cannot. She's a young woman with developmental disabilities who, like the rest of us, is doing the best she can to survive and to enjoy life.

We saw this movie at the truly outstanding Rochester Jewish Film Festival. It will work well on DVD as well. This is a must-see film for those who work in the field of developmental disabilities, but I can recommend it to everyone who wants to see a unusual and thought-provoking movie.

Alejandra Manzo. Incredible.

[davidtraversa-1 · 10/10 · 15 July 2015]

Every so often I watch an old Argentinian movie on You tube. For reasons unknown to me, most of those copies are in such rotten condition that most of the time they deflate your desire to watch the movie.

Specially those from the 20s, 30s, 40s and fifties.

What happened, they don't care about the preservation of our historical patrimony? From the 60s to the present there seems to be no problem with audio and visuals.

I mentioned that historical period of Argentinian movie making because the transition from that bland, amateurish, mediocre industry to what became later in the XXth century is something to be seen to believe it - I place the dividing line with "La historia oficial"- "Official Story", 1985, a movie that was a sort of an earthquake (at least for me) a jaw dropping jewel of a movie that defined a new standard of excellency for the Argentinian cinema.

More expert critics with our industry will certainly place that dividing line somewhere else.

And since then, many jewels adorn our cinema. Like this one, "Anita". Wow, what an excellent movie!! Every thing about it is top drawer, from the director down to the last extra. And same thing can be said about the cinematography. Peerless. The girl playing Anita -Alejandra Manzo- fitted the perfect casting like a glove fits a hand, a dream of any director when having to convey Down syndrome with that awesome understanding and delicacy respecting the sensibilities of actors and audiences alike.

Very moving film in most scenes, without being wimpy. Something utterly difficult to hold back in this case, where the director could have gone overboard with emotions creating a tsunami of tears. I assume the girl playing Anita is not, in real life, as incapacitated as the character in the film, otherwise it must have been a miracle to have her saying her lines as she did.

To me, Anita's character is the most pathetic I've seen since "Precious", 2009, with Gabourey Sidibe, and of course Gelsomina, in "La Strada", 1954, that unforgettable Fellini's masterpiece.

Somewhat entertaining

[spanishlatam · 4/10 · 20 April 2020]

This movie begins with a very nice photography work but as the story progresses images become less worked and it ends with a quality similar to an amateur video. In regards to the story, it is just OK.

The obvious question is why the girl isn't taken to the police. Yes, they think police would send her to a madhouse but this would be unlikely. She was probably well-known by neighborhoods given her condition so there are chances someone would recognized her.

Anita's brother is played by an actor that doesn't achieve a connection with the audience. In other words, it is hard to feel any empathy for his suffering.

The story would have worked better if the mother was the one who is seeking her lost child.