Country: Argentina
Year: 2006
Duration: 63'
Argentino Vargas arrives in Buenos Aires. Standing in the main lobby of the San Martin Theater, he waits for someone to come and take him up to the 10th floor for a screening of the film in which he has the lead role. Misael Saavedra, who has also been invited to the screening, loses his way in the theater trying to find the screening room. The tall building, its rest rooms, staircases, elevators and workshops are the real protagonists of a mystery encountered by two man. “The San Martín Theater is fascinating compared to other buildings of its time. One may imagine that, at the heart of this place, stories are played out which go beyond everyday life. [...] Personally speaking, I try to find settings which are different from those in which I have already worked, such as the pampas or the forest in Corrientes. I wanted to explore a new place, such as this building, its perspectives, its sounds, its silences, its angles, its electronic display signs, its views I wanted to find in these places the same force as that which I have filmed in nature but without repeating a formula.” (L. Alonso)
Biography
film director
Lisandro Alonso
(Argentina, 1973), after attending the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, he began working in film in 1996, producing the short film La última llamada by Andrés G. Schaer. In 1998, he served as assistant director to Nicolás Sarquim on the film Sobre la tierra, and in 2001 he made his feature film debut with La libertad, presented in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, which established him as one of the most interesting young directors in contemporary cinema. His next film, Los muertos (2004), presented at the Directors’ Fortnight, received several international awards, including Best Film at the Turin Film Festival. With his subsequent films, Fantasma and Liverpool (2010), he returned to the Directors’ Fortnight, while Jauja, starring Viggo Mortensen, was again featured in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, as was Eureka (2013), the result of years of work and production. In 2026, he presented La libertad doble at the Directors Fortnight in Cannes, featuring the characters from his 2001 film.
FILMOGRAFIA
Dos en la vereda (cm, 1995), La libertad (2001), Los muertos (2004), Fantasma (2006), Liverpool (2008), Lechuza (cm, 2009), Sin título (Carta para Serra) (cm, 2011), Jauja (2014), Eureka (2023), La libertad doble (2026).