El Incendio

Lucía and Marcelo are sitting in between boxes and packed bags. They are about to move into the flat they have just bought. Then the estate agent cancels, saying they will hand over the keys the next day and suddenly the two thirty-year-olds find themselves with time on their hands. This unexpected break forces them to stop for a moment and ponder their lives and their relationship. Marcelo is having a hard time accepting that the money for the apartment is coming from Lucía’s father. But his wage as a teacher precludes him for raising such a sum himself. At school he is being hassled by parents who claim he has treated their son badly. Lucía too argues with the owner of the restaurant where she works. Her body is also wracked by rather alarming coughing fits … Juan Schnitman’s twenty-four-hour slice of the lives of this young couple paints a portrait of an extremely tense and neurotic society that is about to explode. Looks, gestures and the slightest movements point towards complex insecurities in which love and hatred, silence and screaming are really two sides of the same coin.