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The Argentinean contribution in filmmaker Walter Salles' Pan American production, The Motorcycle Diaries, about the 1952 motorcycle trip taken by a then-23-year-old Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend, Alberto Granado, is Buenos Aires actor Rodrigo de la Serna. Gael Garcia Bernal, the young Mexican actor, plays Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the film's undisputed hero. Salles is Brazilian. Veteran Hollywood actor Robert Redford is the film's producer. Non-actors from villages in Chile and Peru portray the people Guevara and Granado meet along their journey of self-discovery. Almost all the Americas are represented in The Motorcycle Diaries, a film that shares the epic spirit of a classic journey drama like Lawrence of Arabia.
De La Serna understands the Hollywood comparison. Yet, for him, the film stays true to its Latino origins.
"I love a diversity in film, and I can enjoy all types of films from all countries," he says, speaking recently at the Toronto Film Festival. "But Walter's (Salles) films have a very rare sensibility. This is a movie that a Latin American person can be very proud for participating in it. I think what makes the difference is the Latin American feeling this movie has."
