Private Fiction

When his parents died, Andrés Di Tella inherited all the photos and letters they had ever sent to each other. Di Tella’s mother Kamala was born in India, his father Torcuato in Argentina. They’re gone now, and Di Tella has been left with a lot of questions. And nobody can help him answer them, because nearly everyone his parents knew in their younger years is gone.

All that remain are the personal documents, Di Tella’s memories, and his imagination. He brings in two young actors to give his parents a voice again. The actors read their words, immerse themselves in their roles, and are sometimes overwhelmed by the emotions of Di Tella’s parents.

The lovers wrote letters to each other from the 1950s to the 1970s, about globetrotting, idealism, psychoanalysis, loneliness and broken dreams. Scenes from the private lives of the actors—who are also a couple—add a new love story to the narrative. Meanwhile, Di Tella shows his daughter the family archives and his own old footage of his parents. Together, these elements form an intimate cinematic portrait of a turbulent 20th-century love story.