UN MONDO MISTERIOSO/ A MYSTERIOUS LIFE

Argentina, 2011, 85 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Rodrigo Morena.


Not too much a mysterious life, really. Boris is what the US calls a ‘slacker’ – although he is a more enterprising and slightly more interesting than his American counterparts. He is an Argentinian. No evident work, little evident source of income, long scenes with his girlfriend wanting time out and his lack of comprehension. He stays in a hotel, reads best-sellers, buys a Romanian car. It runs out of petrol in the countryside. He meets friends in a book shop, goes to a party (a rather long sequence though there is a funny game of naming celebrities and adding another name to continue the series – the Tom and Jerry, Lewis, Carroll, kind of thing), meets a girl, goes to Uruguay, returns and meets up with his girlfriend again.

Since he is Argentinian, this is a sometimes languid, occasionally active glimpse of a so far fairly meaningless life. Not much mystery.