El Ayudante
El Ayudante is a 1971 Argentine drama film directed and written by Mario David on his directorial debut, and starring Pepe Soriano, José Slavin and Enrique Fava. The screenplay, about a truck driver who befriends a young deaf man, was written by David, based on the book El sordomudo by the author Bernardo Kordon. The film premiered on 25 March 1971 in Buenos Aires, and was both a box office success and critically acclaimed.
Plot
A truck driver bonds with his new helper, a tall, deaf young man. A warm friendship develops during the transportation, with the driver finding the young man's gestures of situations amusing, including depictions of the body shapes of women they pass. The young man purchases a cigar which they share, and they drink a large bottle of beer together.A middle-aged man wearing a hat hitches a ride on the truck and helps them with deliveries. The man visits an elderly woman and child and later wins a bare knuckle fight for money. Later, the truck driver discovers that the hitchhiker is wanted by the police. The man abducts the deaf young man and presumably kills him. The driver catches up with the hitchhiker and avenges the loss of his partner by beating him to death with a pole at a railway yard.
Cast
- Pepe Soriano as Aristóbulo Maresca
- José Slavin
- Enrique Fava
- Carlos Olivieri as Cacho
- Lydia Lamaison as Elvira
- Silvana Roth
- Hugo Astar
- María Esther Corán