Hijo del Rio tells the story of Juan, a seventeen-year-old Charote Indian who tries to survive in the harsh metropolis Buenos Aires. Juan, who is really a fisherman like all the members of his tribe, has been forced to leave his reserve because he protested at the exploitation of the fish wholesalers. In subdued naturalistically-filmed pictures, Cappellari sketches a sensitive and poignant portrait of present-day Argentina.The film opens with idyllic pictures of young Indians catching fish in the river with nets; pictures which contrast starkly with other locations in poverty-stricken Buenos Aires.Just before his departure, Juan is given a photo by his mother showing her with a white man, and on which she writes an address in Buenos Aires. She doesn’t say anything about what the photo means. On his journey to Buenos Aires, Juan meets the amiable tramp Rana and they decide to try their luck in the big city together. But their situation in Buenos Aires soon looks hopeless. They do their best to find work, but find nothing apart from an occasional temporary job. In the slums they are able to rent a kind of shed from the widow Ramona, so they have a roof over their heads. To keep themselves alive, they are increasingly forced to join up with criminal elements. They become involved with a gang which ransacks houses on the orders of corrupt politicians. Then Juan goes in search of the secret of the photo. He ends up with his uncle Cuchara and hears that his father, who he never knew, has left for Europe.The Argentine feature film Hijo del Rio was made for Das Kleine Fernsehspiel, the unsurpassed sanctuary on German television of film-makers.
