The Motorcycle Diaries

Gael García Bernal excels as a young Che Guevara biking across South America in Walter Salles’ adaptation of the Cuban revolutionary’s journals.

In 1951, young medical student Ernesto Guevara completed a motorcycle journey across South America with his friend Alberto Granado. Their six-month trip - marked by mishaps, chance encounters, and exposure to crippling poverty - became the basis for his iconic memoir. Walter Salles’ road movie captures the awakening of Guevara’s social conscience, led by Gael García Bernal’s magnetic charisma.

This moving coming-of-age story combines eye-catching cinematography with exceptional performances, from García Bernal as the young ‘Che’ to Rodrigo de la Serna as his loyal companion. Avoiding the heavy-handed cliches of the average biopic, the film charts Guevara’s political awakening with subtlety and nuance, culminating in the pair’s transformative encounter at a Peruvian leper colony. Winner of the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language and an Academy Award for its evocative music, the film is both an intimate portrait of youth and a powerful reflection on the making of a revolutionary figure.