Playing quite a while on the new Latin American cinema topos of identity and break-out of traditions, Alma Mater finishes furiously with the all-too optimistic expectations of it's viewers, based exactly on what has been just mentioned above. First, the final isn't any happy, though neither desperate. Second, Uruguayan society and family traditions do not exactly allow you to develop your personality if it doesn't correspond to some kind of mainstream; what the movie shows therefore is the realization of an emancipation movement under circumstances that might fairly enough be called difficult, and for which the merely existence of an advancing through hard times is already worth some smile and optimism. Now, if anything of the above is new, or even artistically well drawn in Alma Mater (pronouncing, though, the marvelous acting of Nicolás Becerra) has to be discussed in the future - but the selection of the film's soundtrack can surely not be characterized with less than the best south American o.s.t. in recent years. Minimalist arrangements with angelical voices might sound pathetic or even boring, but they moved every listener I've consulted. Hopefully the tracks will be available soon outside Uruguay. If one knows where, please contact me!
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