Lorenzo Massa (1882 - 1941) was born in a suburb of Buenos Aires and ordained to the priesthood in 1900. He belonged to the order of Salesians of Don Bosco. From its inception in Italy, the order's objective was the care and education of disadvantaged children, many of which did not attend school, dwelled on the streets and were often involved in petty crime. In 1908 he was appointed as director of the Oratorio San Antonio in Almagro, at that time a rather rough neighborhood of Buenos Aires. There he met a group of boys that had organized a soccer team, reduced to playing in the street and lacking proper footballs and uniforms. Massa invited the team to play on the grounds of the Oratorio, provided equipment and uniforms and arranged matches with other youth teams. This was the first step in the foundation of the soccer club San Lorenzo de Almagro, who eventually became one of the Big Five in the first tier of the Argentina Football League, and the longtime favorite team of Pope Francis. El Cura Lorenzo (The Priest Lorenzo) is an name known to every Argentinian.
I saw this movie in the long ago times of my adolescence. I saw it again recently and has retained all of its charm. The copy available in YouTube has been expertly restored near its original quality, which allows us to appreciate the excellent cinematography by Bob Roberts, born in Buffalo, Missouri who became one of the most sought after cameramen in the Argentine film industry. Augusto Cesar Vatteone,
a fixture of Argentinian cinema of the time does an expert job based on a script that he cowrote. Direction is mostly straightforward but lively and well paced. Lead actor Ángel Magaña was one of most popular actors of the time and plays Massa with conviction but also with humor and a light touch. A must watch.
