El Angel

"Inspired by true events."

2018 1h 55m ES

👍

7.4

SOLID

🍅

72%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.9

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 589🍅72%Rotten Tomatoes●61Metacritic★6.9IMDB · 11,771

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1971. Carlos Robledo Puch is a 19-year-old boy with an angelic face, but a vocational thief as well, who acts ruthlessly, without remorse. When he meets Ramón, they follow together a dark path of crime and death.

“Inspired by true events.”

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Cast

Lorenzo Ferro
Carlitos
Chino Darín
Ramón
Mercedes Morán
Ana María
Daniel Fanego
José
Luis Gnecco
Héctor
Cecilia Roth
Aurora
Malena Villa
Twins
William Prociuk
'Federica'

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Luis Ortega
Writers: Lucas Accardo, Luis Ortega, Rodolfo Palacios
Languages: Spanish
Countries: Argentina, Spain

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 8 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Argentina, Spain.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Luis Ortega, shot by Daniel Ortega. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Moondog. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Guille Gatti shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Lorenzo Ferro and Chino Darín and Mercedes Morán carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Luis Ortega directs. Daniel Ortega behind the camera. Moondog scores. Guille Gatti cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Argentina, Spain. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.
3Released 8 years ago.
4International production across 2 countries: Argentina, Spain.
5Directed by Luis Ortega, shot by Daniel Ortega. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Moondog. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Guille Gatti shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Lorenzo Ferro and Chino Darín and Mercedes Morán carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Inspired by true events.".
10IMDB entry: tt7204348 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 9 themes, including "1970s", "based on true story", "male homosexuality", "argentina".

The technical file

Cinematography: Daniel Ortega
Original score: Moondog
Editing: Guille Gatti
Production design: Julia Freid
Makeup / hair: Marisa Amenta
VFX supervisor: Claudio Langsam
Sound: Flavio Nogueira
Runtime: 115 min · 1h 55m
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $10,452,324
Return: 348% of budget
Original language: ES
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: El Angel (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes: 72% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 61/100
IMDB rating: 6.9/10 · 11,771 votes
MPAA: Not Rated

Awards

20 wins & 32 nominations

Also by

Luis Ortega

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-05-23
★ 7/10
Lorenzo Ferro really does deliver well here and is pretty convincing as the curly-haired, butter-wouldn't-melt, Argentinian lad (Carlos) who at the age of seventeen already had his parent's piano stuffed full of ill-gotten pesos. His childhood within a respectable family suggested nothing out of the ordinary til he went to school and met the charismatic petty crook Ramón (Chino Darín). He is infatuated, and there's pretty much nothing he won't do to get and keep his new friend's attention. When that starts to involve his having access to guns, and cars and drugs... The rest of the film is creatively augmented historical fact as this young man discovers violence is a route to riches and success, and that leads to killing and that - well the rushes of blood to the head are addictive. You really could imagine the character delivering the communion wafers on a Sunday and smiling at the babies, yet he was really far more adept with a pistol at eyeball range. His apprehension itself only served to further fuel his desire for acclamation. The media had him on every front page and every television station. He even manages to escape - but that, too, seems little more than a publicity stunt. The production is a bit rough around the edges; the attempts to imply some sort of sexual fluidity to Carlos don't work so well, and there's too much dialogue but Ferro's performance as man for whom taking other lives meant nothing was, I felt, quite sociopathically engaging.

Production companies