In the briefly inhabited world of hotel rooms, people are occasionally guilty of behaviour that cannot bear the light of day. Clara Picasso’s feature debut El pasante is set in a five-star hotel in Buenos Aires, in that vague boundary area between the personal and public domain. A young apprentice is appointed for the nighttime hours as a lift boy. One of the hotel’s receptionists takes him along to show him the ropes, and together they set out to discover what goes on behind the respectable five-star facade. But the guests don’t tend to reveal their secrets that easily and the two allow themselves to be caught up in their own curiosity.
The often virtual relationships that the guests of the hotel maintain with the rest of the world are mercilessly recorded by Picasso’s restrained camera. That’s what the director is interested in: how do we relate to each other and which power relations emerge?
Film details
- Country of production
- Argentina
- Year
- 2010
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2010
- Length
- 65'
- Medium/Format
- HDcam
