Valentin(e) (2017) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

The film is set in Argentina during 1969. The story takes place in homes, churches, parks, and streets that reflect a society navigating tradition and modernity. The Argentine setting amplifies the emotional stakes as Valentín observes adults grappling with love, ideology, and aspiration.

• argentina setting
• 1960s
• location
• latin america

Valentin(e) is set in 1969, during the space race era between the United States and the Soviet Union. This period looms large in the popular imagination, and the film combines geopolitical fever with intimate domestic drama, shaping the characters' choices and hopes.

• 1969
• space race
• 1960s era
• historical period

The film explores four major themes: Dreams (Valentín's astronaut ambition as a beacon of hope), Identity & Belonging (his search for place in a fractured family), Loss (the grandmother's illness and death), and Illusion vs Reality (the gap between adult performance and truth).

• themes
• dreams
• identity
• loss
• illusion
• reality

Valentín is an eight-year-old boy with thick glasses who is perceptive beyond his years. He dreams of becoming an astronaut and uses his imagination to navigate a home split by divorce and his father's tyranny. He handles serious topics with maturity and drives the plot through his observations and actions.

• valentin
• protagonist
• child
• astronaut dream

The Father, played by François Rimbau, is a dictatorial, anti-Semitic Argentine playboy who dominates the family dynamic. His volatile temperament and control over the household push Valentín to seek elsewhere for meaning and stability. His actions catalyze the family's emotional fractures.

• father
• authoritarian
• antagonist
• family conflict

Valentine, played by Capucine de la Gorce, is the father's romantic interest who spends a day with Valentín. Her encounter with him makes her rethink her relationship with his father and ultimately ends the affair. Her presence exposes how adults' choices ripple through a child's sense of security.

• valentine
• love interest
• affair
• maternal figure

Valentín's longing to become an astronaut anchors the narrative as a beacon of hope amid a fractured family. His imagination turns space into a refuge where possibility outshines despair. The dream functions as both personal escape and a commentary on a society that promises progress but struggles to protect its own.

• astronaut
• space
• dreams
• escape
• hope

The illness and eventual death of Valentín's grandmother marks a pivotal emotional turn, teaching him about mortality, responsibility, and resilience. Loss permeates his childhood, reframing his understanding of care and companionship. The film uses grief to deepen character complexity and illustrate how love persists after departure.

• grandmother
• death
• grief
• loss
• mortality

The father's dictatorial persona contrasts with his real-life flaws, exposing the gap between outward bravado and inner fragility. The priest's talk of ideals contrasts with Valentín's lived experience, highlighting how adults sometimes preach change without enacting it. The narrative blurs performance and truth, urging discernment between sincerity and spectacle.

• illusion
• reality
• performance
• truth
• hypocrisy

Valentín's mother, Véronique Royer, is Jewish and largely absent from the family after being pushed aside by the domineering father. Valentín deeply misses her, even struggling to remember her clearly. Her absence shapes his longing for closeness and belonging, coloring his interactions with others who step into maternal roles.

• mother
• absence
• jewish
• family
• longing