Having fled Poland for South America during WWII, curmudgeonly Jacob Kaplan (award-winning Chilean actor Héctor Noguera) is passing his sunset years in Montevideo with his wife of 50 years, Rebecca (Nidia Telles). With his family lost in the war, he begins to take stock of his own unfulfilled life, and finds himself fed up with the local Jewish community’s disinterest in their heritage. Intent on creating a legacy, Kaplan fancies himself a Nazi hunter, targeting the reclusive German owner of a seafront restaurant (Rolf Becker), whom, based on the flimsiest of evidence, he suspects of being a war criminal. Joining the quixotic quest for justice is Kaplan’s hapless chauffeur Contreras (Néstor Guzzini), a disgraced ex-cop who also has something to prove. A bumbling investigation ensues, with hilarious and surprising results that will leave audiences contemplating nothing less than the meaning of life.
Loosely inspired by the story of the filmmaker’s own grandfather, director Álvaro Brechner deftly handles the film’s shifting seriocomic tones while maximizing the Latin scenery and music.

Introduction to film and Q& A with Dr. Norman J.W. Goda