Dir: Laura Citarella | Cast: Laura Paredes, Ezequiel Pierri, Rafael Spregelburd, Elisa Carricajo, Veronica Llinas, Juliana Muras, Argentina, Drama | 2 x 120′
Taking its name from a sparsely populated town in a region larger than Austria, to the West of Buenos Aires Laura Citarella’s compelling feature debut often feels like an Argentine version of Twin Peaks, unfolding in two parts each two hours long.
The mystery is there, the smalltime isolation in a remote landlocked province where a literary-minded woman (Laura Paredes) has vanished, apparently without trace, after discovering a series of enigmatic letters. Two men want to find her for different reasons. Ezequiel (Pierri) a colleague, and her boyfriend Raphael (Spregelburd). Neither are rivals and share that unknowing quality of being easy companions, but not close friends. And their journey turns into an existential quest for truth; an exploration of human nature in a tale that takes us off the beaten track and down many a cul de sac and diversion embodying the complexity of the female condition. MT
SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2022