Arcibel's Game (Spanish: El juego de Arcibel), is a 2003 Argentine drama film co-written and directed by Alberto Lecchi and starring Darío Grandinetti and Diego Torres, among others.[2]

Arcibel's Game
SpanishEl juego de arcibel
Directed byAlberto Lecchi
Written byDaniel García Molt
Alberto Lecchi
Produced byLuis Sartor
StarringDarío Grandinetti
Juan Echanove
Juan Diego
Diego Torres
Vladimir Cruz
Rebecca Cobos
Alejandro Trejo
Bernard Blancan
CinematographyHugo Colace
Edited byAlejandro Alem
Miguel Santamaría
Music byIván Wyszogrod
Distributed byDistribution Company Sudamericana[1]
Release date
  • May 29, 2003 (2003-05-29)
Running time
115 minutes[1]
Countries
  • Argentina
  • Spain[1]
LanguageSpanish

Plot

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1967: in Miranda, an imaginary Latin American country, ruled by the dictator General Abalorio, Arcibel Alegría (Darío Grandinetti), a journalist who writes articles about chess is taken to jail as political prisoner due to a mixed-up schedule of the newspaper he works for. Arcibel, a non-political, rather solitary person, separated, and father of a two-year-old girl, will get to know a new reality he's never heard of, from inside the jail.

Arcibel spends his time learning and, luckily for him, playing chess with Palacios, his cell neighbor. As time goes by, General Abalorio is elected president after democratic elections and all political prisoners are set free, except for Arcibel, who, due to a bureaucratic mess, will be confined to jail where the rest of the criminals are locked up.

The jail gets crowded with thieves and murderers. Pablo (Diego Torres), his new cellmate, hardly knows how to read or write and he definitely doesn't play chess. Despite Arcibel's efforts, Pablo doesn't learn a thing and therefore, Arcibel comes up with an idea. He invents a witty war game, of guerillas. In time Pablo becomes an expert. When he meets Rosalinda, Arcibel's daughter who is already in her twenties, he's touched. The day Pablo manages to beat Arcibel in the game, he runs away. Arcibel then has to undergo terrible punishments for keeping quiet about his cellmate's jailbreak. However, he holds out until time gives him another surprise. His game, Arcibel's game, is not a game anymore, it has become real, and the two leading players turn out to be no others than Pablo and his own daughter Rosalinda.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "El juego de Arcibel". Comisión Asesora de Exhibiciones Cinematográficas. National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  2. ^ El juego de arcibel at IMDb
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