Borges Film – Cuentos: El sur

El sur
The South

1992, Spain, 58 min.

Crew
Directed by Carlos Saura.
Produced by Andrés Vincente Gómez.
Screenplay by Carlos Saura.
Cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine.

Cast
Óscar Martínez – Juan Dahlmann
Nini Gambier – Doña Rosario
Alexandra Davel – Sara Dahlmann

Synopsis

Variety: A shy Argentine librarian Juan Dahlmann dreams that he is fatally stabbed on his family’s ranch, located in southern Argentina. After suffering a head injury he is ordered to rest until he fully recovers. Dahlmann decides to spend his time recovering at his family’s ranch, fulfilling his long-held desire to revisiting the ranch. He sets off for the ranch and the destiny that awaits him there.

Comments

In 1993, Televisión Española (RTVE) aired a limited series called Los cuentos de Borges, or “Borges Tales.” Consisting of six hour-long episodes, each was an adaptation of a Borges story helmed by a different director. El sur is an adaptation of Borges’ semi-autobiographical story “The South,” originally collected in Ficciones.

Additional Information

Los cuentos de Borges [DVD]
Copies of the Cuentos DVD box set are available from Amazon.com. They are coded for regions 1–6, and do not include English subtitles.

Films for Humanities: El sur
The Films for the Humanities page on El sur features a preview and “chapter-based” synopsis.

IMDB Page
The Internet Movie Database maintains a small page on El sur.

Wikipedia Page
Wikipedia’s page on El sur.

Carlos Saura on El sur
Posted on Lola Films, the director explains the history of filming El sur. 

The Music of Borgesian Destiny in Saura’s “El sur”
A 2006 paper by Linda M. Willem that calls the film a “testimony to cinematic complexity.”

Los cuentos de Borges: Episodes

Los cuentos de Borges
Back to the main page for Los cuentos de Borges.

La otra historia de Rosendo Juárez
Directed by Gerardo Vera and starring Antonio Banderas, this is an alternate version of Borges’ story, “Rosendo’s Tale.”

Emma Zunz
Directed by Benoît Jacquot, Emma Zunz is a joint production with France’s Cinétévé.

La intrusa
Directed by Jaime Chávarri, this is an adaptation of “The Intruder.”

El evangelio según Marcos
Directed by Héctor Olivera, this is an adaptation of “The Gospel According to Mark.”

La muerte y la brújula
Directed by Alex Cox with the BBC, Death and the Compass was later expanded into a feature-length film.

Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 25 August 2024
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