From acclaimed Argentinian director Laura Citarella comes Trenque Lauquen, a gripping tale of mystery that unfolds over twelve chapters and screened in two installments, premiering this April.
Trenque Lauquen tells the story of Laura, a biologist cataloging plant species in the small town of Trenque Lauquen, Argentina, who has gone missing. Her boyfriend and a driver she’s worked with teamed up to track her down. The two men share stories and tour the doldrums of the Las Pampas area. As they get to know one another, they begin to unravel the mystery behind Laura’s disappearance, discoveries that lead to other discoveries, and even more questions.
The deeper we go into the rabbit hole, the more the film begins to unfold like a giant map—sprouting stories within stories in a labyrinth of genres, characters, and vivid flashbacks. At turns, detective caper, thriller, sci-fi tale, and romance, Trenque Lauquen changes perspective in its second part and introduces supernatural elements into the drama.
The film took six years to complete and is one of an ongoing series of films centered on the character Laura, who also happens to share a name with both the filmmaker and the actress, Laura Paredes (Argentina 1985; La Flor). The first installment, Ostende (2011), followed Laura as she listened in, voyeur-like, to the stories of visitors in a seaside hotel near Buenos Aires; in Trenque Lauquen, Laura becomes the mystery herself.
Produced by El Pampero Cine, makers of the 14-hour opus La Flor (2018), Trenque Lauquen continues the film collective’s boundary-pushing approach to labyrinthine fiction filmmaking and is a testament to the idiosyncratic literary realism that has bloomed in recent Argentine cinema.
“A tale of obsessive pursuit and the quest for personal freedom, Trenque Lauquen is a viewing experience that pushes the boundaries of the cinematic imagination and whose circular narrative, as its title suggests (“round lagoon,” in the native Mapuche language), will leave viewers submerged in its mystery.”
Winner of the award for “Best Latin American Picture” at the Mar de Plata Film Festival, and a favorite at the Venice, San Sebastian, and New York film festivals, the film will have its U.S. theatrical release starting Friday, April 21 at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City, followed by a special screening at the American Cinematheque on Saturday, April 29, and theatrical engagements in other cities.
