Our Last Tango (2015)

The Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies (ANCLAS) is pleased to present Our Last Tango, to be introduced by the Argentine Ambassador, His Excellency Dr Hugo Javier Gobbi.

Each year Argentina celebrates the National Tango Day on 11 December. This date was chosen to commemorate the birthday of two prominent figures in the history of tango: Carlos Gardel (singer, songwriter and composer) and Julio de Caro (composer, musician and orchestra conductor). Throughout the years this great initiative spread to other parts of the world, where tango is embraced by numerous followers.
 
Tango is certainly growing in popularity in Australia. It reflects in the ever-growing number of tango schools around the country and numerous tango related events such as shows, concerts and festivals. The Embassy of Argentina, in collaboration with ANCLAS and Tango Social Club in Canberra, would like to extend the celebration of Tango Day to Canberra. Despite its relatively small size, this city has many passionate tango enthusiasts and enjoys vibrant tango events as was demonstrated only recently in the “Tango in the Spring” festival that attracted people from all over Australia and beyond.
 
The celebration in Canberra will be marked with the screening of the documentary “Our Last Tango”. It is a story about the life and love of two of the most famous tango dancers of the 20^th century. The documentary maker German Kral chronicles the decades’ long career of Argentine tango legends Maria Nieves and Juan Carlos Copes, who met in the late 40s when she was 14 and he was 17. They danced together for nearly fifty years and during that time they loved and hated each other and went through several painful breakups. Now both in their eighties, they are willing to open up their hearts about their passion.
 
“Our Last Tango” was selected to be part of several film festivals including Toronto International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Internationale Hofer Filmtage and Mar del Plata International Film Festival.

About the director:

German Kral was born in Buenos Aires in 1968. In 1991 he went to Germany to study cinematography at the Munich Film School. His diploma film “Images of the Absence”, was nominated for the German Grimme Prize and awarded the First Prize at the Yamagata Film Festival in Japan, as well as receiving the Young Bavarian Documentary Film Award. He is a director and writer, best known for his films “Our Last Tango”, “Música Cubana” and “The Last Applause”.

His film “Música Cubana” (2004) had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival and has been sold all over the world. His film “The Last Applause” (2008), a German, Argentinean and Japanese co-production, received the “FFF Talent Award” at the DOK.FEST Munich and the “Starter Film Prize” of the City of Munich.

The screening will be followed by light food and beverages through the kind support of the Embassy of the Argentine Republic.

Free and open to the public. No RSVP required.