The Motorcycle Diaries (film)
The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish title: Diarios de motocicleta) is a biographical film about how young Ernesto "Che" Guevara (who later gained fame as a Marxist revolutionary) and his friend Alberto Granado travelled across South America. Gael García Bernal acted as the young Ernesto Guevara and Rodrigo de la Serna (in real-life Guevara's second cousin) as Alberto Granado.
The movie was directed by the Brazilian film-maker Walter Salles. The screenplay, written by acclaimed Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, is based on Guevara's and Granado's journals. The movie had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004, and it opened worldwide later that year.
The Motorcycle Diaries was nominated for four awards at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; it won the François Chalais Award, a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and a Technical Grand Prize. The only one it didn't win was the Golden Palm (Palme D'Or). It was also nominated for two Oscar Awards in 2005 – Best Original Song and Best Adapted Script. It won the Best Original Song for "Al otro lado del río", written and performed by Jorge Drexler. This was the first time ever that a Spanish song received an honor in the Oscars.
Tagline: Let the world change you and you can change the world.
Storyline
In 1952, shortly before Ernesto is due to complete his medical degree, he and his older friend Alberto, a biochemist left Buenos Aires in order to travel throughout the Latin American continent seeking fun and adventures. Their objective was to reach Venezuela, passing by a leper colony in the Peruvian Amazon. The method of transport is Alberto's ancient and leaky Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa ("The Mighty One").
The route they planned to take is a mighty feat. They will travel through the Andes, along the coast of Chile, across the Atacama Desert and into the Peruvian Amazon and reach Venezuela just in time for Alberto's 30th birthday.
During the travel they came across human poverty and suffering. They were able to spend a week with sick people while volunteering at a leper colony in the north of Peru and meet a couple, who had had their land taken away from them by the new large land owners. These acquaintances with injustice changed the way Guevara sees the world, obviously portraying the motivations behind his later political activities.
In a journey that lasts more than a year, the partners travel over 12,000 kilometres, from Argentina through Chile, Peru, and Colombia to Venezuela.
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