The Motorcycle Diaries

The best films escape any attempt to put them in a thematic pigeonhole. So it is with The Motorcycle Diaries by Walter Salles from 2004. It is a film about friendship, about love, about adventurousness and about politics.

In 1952 two young men climb a motorcycle to discover South America. They are Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, a student of medicine, and Alberto Granado, a biochemist, played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna. A double act comparable to Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Ernesto thin, serious and asthmatic. Alberto round, happy and optimistic. During their eight-month journey through winter and summer and through various countries, they will experience the largest contrasts possible. They are going to party, dance and fall in love. They will meet destitute miners, oppressed Indians and leprous people who have to hide in isolation.

The young men are out on an adventure, but they are also going through a coming-of-age process that ends with political awakening. The film shows something of the background of the man who would become an icon to all rebels, Che Guevara. It is a film of great seriousness and with a filmic language marked by warmth and humour. Remembering scenes makes me want to watch it yet again - and I have seen it at leat three times all ready. Tove Nilsen