You'd be forgiven for thinking that after City of God and its seemingly endless imitators that the Slum Movie might have exhausted itself (I certainly had enough by the time of Elite Squad) but White Elephant takes a different viewpoint, moving away from the bedded-in gangsters to those who orbit the chaos and try to make a difference.
The White Elephant of the title is a hollowed out remains of a hospital that overlooks Buenos Aires's toughest slum; planned to be completed in the 30s the funding dried up and today it's a symbol of the city's attitude to the area - forgotten, dismissed, a lost cause. Father Julian (Darin) is determined the new community centre project, half funded by the church, doesn't go the same way despite a halt in construction. Julian is seriously ill and hopes new French priest Nicolas (Renier) will take his place but Nicholas feels he's not fit: he's haunted by the guilt of watching the massacre of a village in the Amazon as he hid from view and suspects that he's falling for feisty social worker, Luciana (Gusman). He also has very different views to Julian on the drug war that uses the slum as a battleground, preferring to get involved and induce peace by mediation.
Far more engaging than Pablo Trapero's rather cold and distant Carancho, White Elephant is a movie about faith in spite of everything, making difficult decisions, human frailty and owning up to the worst things about ourselves. Even the righteous Julian admits at one point, "Sometimes I want to tell everyone go f**k themselves." Darin, whose world-weary face also exudes great warmth, is wonderful again but the real surprise is Renier, who is best known for playing completely detached characters (he's a Dardenne Brothers regular), as he revels in the opportunity of play the emotionally unhinged Nicolas. Gusman too impresses, allowing her feelings for the priest emerge subtly.
Trapero gives a great sense of the overwhelming job of the priests here and trying to make a difference here is like beating back the waves with a tennis racket. What Trapero seems to be saying with White Elephant, however, that standing there holding the racket is a start.
