Abuelo Gaucho
About the Film
The old gaucho portrays Orlando Vera Cruz, a singer-songwriter and poet from Santa Fe, who, with extraordinary energy at the age of 76, embarks on a pilgrimage — on horseback and by canoe — toward the origins of the gaucho: his vibrant image, his music, his poetic and human richness, and his coexistence with a present that seeks to shed light on the shadow of the indigenous people, their mixed heritage, and the deep roots of the peoples of the Americas.
On this journey, past and present coexist through the nostalgia of an Atahualpa Yupanqui still alive in the strings and voice of this gaucho, and of a Belgrano that reappears in the native voices and fragmented stories of a black-and-white struggle, striving to keep alive the memory of Argentina’s roots.
Director: Martín Donatti
Producer: Marcela Sacco
Argentina // 2025 // Documentary // LOLA Award Nominee - Los Features
67 minutes
About the Filmmaker
Martín “POLO” Donatti is an audiovisual artist and filmmaker from Venado Tuerto (Santa Fe, Argentina), where he graduated from the Provincial School of Arts No. 3. His early years were deeply rooted in cultural and artistic exploration: he was involved in grassroots cultural collectives, wrote poetry and novels, worked as a librarian, participated in alternative social movements, and founded a cultural bar that included an art gallery, as well as managing a video rental store. As a musician, he toured across Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, performing as a trumpet player in a traditional music orchestra.
Between 2016 and 2019, he contributed to the production of several films, including Testigo de Otro Mundo by Alan Stivelman, Venado Tuerto by Jerónimo Marroquín, Abya Yala by Santiago Cesana, and Hore Shakul by Marcela Sacco.
In 2020, he premiered his documentary El Laboratorio, which won a film festival in Tucumán, Argentina, and was officially selected in festivals across Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, marking his emergence as a distinctive voice in documentary filmmaking.
From 2021 to 2024, he edited both a medium-length film and a feature film commissioned by the municipalities of Venado Tuerto and Maggiolo. These works explore local identity and collective memory: one retraces the history of a museum and an Argentine champion race car driver from the 1960s, while the other portrays the foundation and evolution of a rural community through the polyphonic voices of its inhabitants.
In 2025, after five years of dedicated work, Donatti completed his first feature film for the commercial circuit, Abuelo Gaucho, developed in collaboration with Orlando Vera Cruz, one of Argentina’s most renowned folk musicians. The project reflects a deeply personal and hands-on creative process: Donatti carried the film from its initial concept through to final edit, including writing the screenplay, recording direct sound, and operating as second camera during its early stages, when the production consisted of a minimal crew of just two people.
