Delfina Castagnino

As the day begins, a woman sets out to go about her routine, until she decides to take her children to the cemetery to see zombies. When she returns home, this interruption in her day will leave her with a strange and magical feeling.

Ignacio embarks on a trip driven by the coincidences that bring together the news that his young girlfriend is pregnant and an invitation to a seminar in Chile almost simultaneously.

Pilar lives in the south. She recently lost her father and is now on her own. María came to visit her, to keep her company and take a break from the boyfriend she's on the point of leaving. Neither has the wherewithal to comfort the other. Neither knows what they want. They barely know what they don't want. They don't want to go back to their lives. They don't want to think about the future. They don't want to be alone. They don't want their holiday to end. A timber yard about to close, a horse and a dog, a few men, a little alcohol and the cold waters of the southern lakes.

Pilar lives in the south. She recently lost her father and is now on her own. María came to visit her, to keep her company and take a break from the boyfriend she's on the point of leaving. Neither has the wherewithal to comfort the other. Neither knows what they want. They barely know what they don't want. They don't want to go back to their lives. They don't want to think about the future. They don't want to be alone. They don't want their holiday to end. A timber yard about to close, a horse and a dog, a few men, a little alcohol and the cold waters of the southern lakes.

Continuing the series started with Intervened Events (2014), the Buenos Aires Film Museum presents the second feature film made entirely with material from its archives and by fourteen outstanding Argentine filmmakers. These are nine issues of Cine Escuela Argentino, a project created in 1948 by the Argentine Ministry of Education during the first government of Juan Domingo Perón. The latter promoted “the use of the cinematographer as a didactic assistant destined to complete the educational and cultural work, mainly in what concerns exalting the feelings of the nationality, with the heroic example of the heroes, Christian morality and the multiple civil duties, great and small”. Hence, most of the films produced by Cine Escuela Argentino were aimed at scientific dissemination and tourism promotion of the various regions of the country. (Museum of Cinema)

Without a doubt, Angélica is having a crisis. Her mother died recently, she has to empty out her childhood home because it is going to be demolished, she doesn’t seem to have gotten over her split with her ex, and she is about to turn 40. Without any idea about how to deal with any of these things, she escapes to the past: she secretly hides in her childhood home and, while the walls fall around her, reality becomes hazy. Hidden in her house, that is both a shelter and a trap, bit by bit Angélica loses herself, fusing with her mother. Delfina Castagnino creates an elliptical and sinister tale, sowed with disturbing sounds and shadows, a film in which a framing, a musical note or a camera movement can transform peeling wallpaper into a threat, or the projection of a slide image into a ghost. And so what could be a family drama becomes a psychological thriller: Angélica turns mourning into a tale of horror.

Without a doubt, Angélica is having a crisis. Her mother died recently, she has to empty out her childhood home because it is going to be demolished, she doesn’t seem to have gotten over her split with her ex, and she is about to turn 40. Without any idea about how to deal with any of these things, she escapes to the past: she secretly hides in her childhood home and, while the walls fall around her, reality becomes hazy. Hidden in her house, that is both a shelter and a trap, bit by bit Angélica loses herself, fusing with her mother. Delfina Castagnino creates an elliptical and sinister tale, sowed with disturbing sounds and shadows, a film in which a framing, a musical note or a camera movement can transform peeling wallpaper into a threat, or the projection of a slide image into a ghost. And so what could be a family drama becomes a psychological thriller: Angélica turns mourning into a tale of horror.