MODERN history hits the big screen this week.

Walter Salles' road movie, which has been selected to open this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival, charts the true story of how the young Che Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his medical school pal Alberto Grando (Rodrigo De La Serna) embarked on an epic journey from Buenos Aires to Caracas that would change the course of history.

Che famously went on to play a key role, along with Fidel Castro, in the Cuban revolution, but this film charts his early, pre-revolutionary days.

It shows how Guevara, in the days when he was just known as Ernesto and not Che, had his mind opened by his journey through South America in the 50s and how the seeds were sown which grew into many of his revolutionary ideas.

The film is based on the writings of both Guevara and Grando and offers an interesting twist on the conventional road movie.

Starring rising Latino heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal, who was recently seen in Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education, the film is sure to be one of the most popular foreign language movies of the year.