2 Movies Like El comensal (2022)

Staff & contributors

Although Descendant is built around the finding of the Clotilda—the last ship to bring African slaves to the United States—this documentary knows that there's so much more potent drama in the stories of the ordinary people of Africatown, Alabama. As this painful reminder of the roots of their community is salvaged from the water, their view of history itself begins to change. Now they face the responsibility of making sure that the Clotilda doesn't just become a tourist attraction, and that their call for reparations unites the Mobile region of Alabama more than anything else. Its a gripping, complex documentary that feels like reading a great novel.

Genre: Documentary, Drama, History

Actor: Cleon Jones

Director: Margaret Brown

Argentina, 1985 is a legal drama about how a prosecutor and his young team were able to mount evidence—despite all threats and odds—against the officials behind a brutal military dictatorship. The public trial is supposedly the first of its kind in Latin America, a marker of true democracy that made a hero out of Julio Strassera and Moreno Ocampo, who both led the case.

Despite the presence of very serious themes, there are moments of lighthearted humor here that work to stress the film’s underlying message of goodwill and perseverance. Argentina, 1985 competed at major festivals this 2022, and it’s Argentina’s official entry at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Genre: Crime, Drama, History

Actor: Agustín Rittano, Alejandra Flechner, Alejo Garcia Pintos, Antonia Bengoechea, Brian Sichel, Carlos Portaluppi, Claudio Da Passano, Fernando Contigiani García, Francisco Bertín, Gina Mastronicola, Guillermo Jacubowicz, Héctor Díaz, Laura Paredes, Norman Briski, Peter Lanzani, Pietro Gian, Ricardo Darín, Susana Pampín, Toto Rovito, Walter Jakob

Director: Santiago Mitre

Rating: R