Los guantes mágicos

Virtually all the characters in this Argentine absurd tragi-comedy roam lost in their own limited universe. Their happiness depends on any business opportunity that might crop up, they seek solace in emigration or medication. Of course all of this, according to script writer and director Rejtman, can be regarded as a metaphor for Argentine society. With his great feeling for undercooled humour, previously seen in Silvia Prieto, Rejtman provides his perspective on the middle classes of Buenos Aires who, like the city itself, are only a shadow of what they once were, thanks to the economic crisis. Taxidriver Alejandro is confronted with extreme events. However, he doesn’t really care, as long as he can sit in his old Renault 12. His girlfriend Cecilia dumps him because of her depression and seeks solace in pills, drink and a professional dog walker. When Alejandro visits the ear specialist, he lets him talk him into a pair of national-health spectacles. And it proves just as easy to saddle him up with an apartment, a stewardess, a dog and a porn actor. When Buenos Aires is suddenly hit by a cold snap, Alejandro takes up with Sergio, who wants to import a batch of Magic Gloves. Poverty and wealth change places just as fast as the Renault 12 changes hands and Cecilia changes her regime of pills, but there never seems to be a trace of emotion in Alejandro or in any of his strange, chance friends.