Santiago’s life looks successful in every regard. Together with his wife Milli, he runs a promising interior design company. He can afford a luxurious apartment and an independent existence. With their little daughter Josefina, the couple forms an ideal family that leads a fairly predictable yet happy everyday life. Then their life is disrupted by a gruesome accident.
The big-city glamour and fortune, portrayed by Trapero in largely white, virginal sets and lively scenes then makes way for the sluggish, grey and merciless winter landscapes of Patagonia. This is where Santiago hides and tries to deny his past in the anonymity of a small, desolate and barely functioning airport. Even though he makes friends with whom he can go hunting and can drink away the days, he finds no peace. During his unexciting and loveless day, the past continues to haunt him.
Trapero slowly but surely builds an intimate story within which isolation does not offer his protagonist comfort or a way out. His actors play convincingly and naturally in a natural mise-en-scène that is both casual and clever. In the end, Santiago decides to face up to the truth and he travels back to the city. (SdH)