''La Raulito'' (Little Ralph) is a 1975

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

film directed by

Lautaro Murúa Lautaro Murúa (; 29 December 1926 in Tacna, Chile – 3 December 1995 in Madrid) was a Chilean-Argentine actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is one of the best known actors in the cinema of Argentina. Born in Chile, Murúa moved to ...

and written by

Rocío Dúrcal María de los Ángeles de las Heras Ortiz (4 October 1944 – 25 March 2006), better known professionally as Rocío Dúrcal (), was a Spanish singer and actress. Widely successful in Mexico, she earned the sobriquet of ''Reina de las Rancheras'' ...

, Manuel Alexandre and Rafaela Aparicio. In a survey of the 100 greatest films of Argentine cinema carried out by the

Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken is a museum of cinema of Argentina located in Buenos Aires. It was established on 1971 and holds a collection of 65,000 reels of film. History The Cinema Museum of the City of Buenos Aires was created on Oc ...

in 2000, the film reached the 18th position.

Synopsis

The film tells the story of a real life fan of

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in th ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club, María Esther Duffau, who as a teenage girl adopted the identity of a man in order to survive on the

streets Streets is the plural of street, a type of road. Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music * Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh * ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. The film shows the teenage Raulito wandering between a

reformatory A reformatory or reformatory school is a youth detention center or an adult correctional facility popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Western countries. In the United Kingdom and United States, they came out of social concern ...

for juvenile offenders, prison and

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

. Raulito manages to escape, and finds work at

Constitución railway station Constitución railway station () is a large railway station in Constitución, a in central Buenos Aires, Argentina. The full official name of the station is (in English: Constitution Square Station) reflecting the fact that the station is loc ...

in ''Barrio'' Constitución. Raulito meets up with another street child and they become close friends. They both eventually manage to escape to

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a sh ...

Release

The film premiered in Argentina on 10 July 1975.

Cast

The cast list (in alphabetical order) was: *

Adriana Aizemberg Adriana Aizenberg (born 1 December 1938) is an Argentina, Argentine film and television actress. She has appeared in film since the year 1967 making her debut in ''El ABC del amor'' making some sixteen appearances to date. She appeared in the po ...

* Martín Andrade * Christina Banegas *

Roberto Carnaghi Roberto Luis Carnaghi (born May 13, 1938) is an Argentine actor who has appeared in 44 films, about 60 plays, more than 50 television programmes, and nearly 100 advertisements. Biography Carnaghi was born on May 13, 1938, in Avellaneda. He studi ...

* Pablo Cedrón * Mónica Escudero * Zulema Katz *

Virginia Lago Virginia Lago (born 22 May 1946) is an Argentine actress with an extensive career in theater, film, and television. She is best known for being the host of the popular film series ', broadcast by Telefe. Biography Virginia Lago was born in San ...

* Juanita Lara * Anita Larronde * Carlos Lasarte *

Mario Luciani is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

* Jorge Martínez *

Duilio Marzio Duilio Marzio (November 27, 1923 - July 25, 2013) was a well-known Argentine cinema and theatre actor. Life and work Marzio was born Duilio Bruno Perruccio La Stella in Buenos Aires to Sicilian immigrants, in 1923. He enrolled at the University ...

Fernanda Mistral Fernanda is a Portuguese, Spanish and Italian feminine equivalent of Fernando, a male given name of Germanic origin, with an original meaning of "adventurous, bold journey". __TOC__ People *Fernanda Abreu (born 1961), Brazilian popular singer * ...

* Irene Morack * Ana María Picchio *

Luis Politti Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

* Marilina Ross * Blanquita Silván * Nelly Tesolín * María Vaner

Miscellaneous

A follow-up film was released in Spain in 1976, '' La Raulito Released'', starring

Charo López María del Rosario López Piñuelas (born 28 October 1943) better known as Charo López, is a Spanish actress. Filmography *Plan Jack cero tres (1967) *El hueso (1967) *La vida sigue igual (1969) *Ditirambo (1969) * El extraño caso del docto ...

with a screenplay by Eduardo Barreiros and

Eduardo Mignogna Eduardo Mignogna (August 17, 1940 – October 6, 2006) was an Argentinian film director and screenwriter. Filmography * 1975 - ''La Raulito en libertad'' (writer) * 1983 - ''El Desquite'' (writer) * 1983 - ''Evita, quien quiera oír que oiga'' ...

. The real life ''La Raulito'', Mary Esher Duffau, died at the age of 74 on 30 April 2008, on the same day Boca Juniors played a

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

match against the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian club

Cruzeiro Esporte Clube Cruzeiro Esporte Clube (), known simply as Cruzeiro, is a Brazilian sports club based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Cruzeiro is mostly known for its association football team. It pla ...

, with the players and fans observing a minute's silence in her remembrance.

References

External links