Castro (2009)

Director: Alejo Moguillansky

Screenplay: Alejo Moguillansky

Cast: Edgardo Castro as Castro, Julia Martínez Rubio as Celia, Alberto Suarez as Samuel, Carla Crespo as Rebeca Thompson, Esteban Lamothe as Acuña

Ephemeral Waves

Castro begins with three people - an older man (with white hair so trimmed and thinning he is nearly bald) called Samuel, a younger man named Acuña, and a young woman named Rebeca Thompson, all pursuing the titular Castro, a man fleeing them in a white shirt and tanned trousers who they have run from one end of an Argentinean city to the train station to catch, even if he eludes them by leaving the train and walking on the tracks for a distance. Castro, the ellusive figure, is persued by these people throughout the film. With his salt-and-pepper hair, Castro is openly a penniless vagabond, with a tendency to sleep in closets, a novel way to get coffee for free (drinking his, stealing someone else's of a different order, and complaining he was not given the right order), and a novel way of riding buses for free (get on one, fumble in his pockets as it moves, get off when telling the driver he has no change, get on another bus afterwards). Samuel is after him for money, Acuña (for the rest of the film mostly moving on crutches) his associate tracking Castro for him alongside Willie, another of his associates. Rebeca is Castro's wife, who is still together as a divorce has yet to go through, in spite of him being with Celia, a woman who has been with Samuel (and to Samuel's mind, still should be).

I have encountered Alejo Moguillansky as a filmmaker before. His 2017 film The Little Match Girl was a disappointment for me though with hindsight its fascinating mix, very much like this, could have worked. I had to admire that in only 71 minutes that Argentinean production managed to including references to Hans Christian Anderson, Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), the extreme left wing German terrorist organisation the Baader-Meinhof Group, and opera but that was a case of a film which did not feel as surreal or as playful as it needed to be, least on that single viewing, maybe as much because I was expecting a bit more from it then what I had gotten. Least for my impression back then, it was mainly a family drama around a strained couple which was sweet but conventional in spite of its curious plot references. Here however you have something a bit more eccentric. Deadpan and shot in natural, graffiti filled streets Casto is eccentric, and the solo piano score and the fact it evokes silent cinema accompaniment feels perfect for this production, which does feel like a film where the point to why these characters are after each other is less important than the interactions themselves.

Split under chapter cards, this is a film of these figures in the midst of their search for Castro, even Castro himself in some search for what he wants as he is a figure fleeing or skinning the cat constantly. The allies after Castro are even divided, messages from Samuel suggesting everyone distrust the other, whilst Willie and Rebeca develop a relationship where they organise their sex life as much as strategy to find her husband. Even Celia, who is ultimately left by herself, pushes Castro to find work, in a world where an interview is a mechanical environment, where any interview (like with Celia's asking for measurements even of her wrists and forearms) is oppressive. When Castro does find work, he ends up with a strange (and likely illegal) package delivery group, whose elaborate method of transport, a mass of men switching cars with the person carrying the package, done in breakneck efficiency and bonnet sliding, also forces him to leave the apartment in the city he rented with Celia to stay in their hive.

The film, low key and relaxed, uses this tone to an advantage as, barring moments of rapid fire dialogue, there is a subdued mood that can juxtapose the content. The more absurd aspects stand out, such as how encumbered even as a young able bodied Acuña is trying to trail Castro on crutches through the city. The unexpected frankness of sex with some nudity, whilst chaste in comparison to other films, stands out as does the more openly ridiculous touches particularly due to the lack of quick editing, camera movement baring long tracking shots, and many scenes in plain environments. Samuel's general decline as he is exasperated by everyone else's failure to find Castro; working on interior decoration at a house in his downtime, at first he starts laying on the floor around the paint cans and ladder in misery, then eventually painting his own face red rather than on a wall where it was intended for, throwing objects at a statue in public half mad in one shot out of his whits. It is cute when, to try to trail Celia to get Castro, three of them follow her, signalling each other with umbrellas. Far less expected, and the subdued tone working perfectly, is the least expected film for a car chase to transpire in yet naturally makes sense to; logically involving the hijacking of one of the courier cars, Castro in the car ahead, the piano score by Ulises Conti with its evocation of silent films is befittingly beautifully as is the fact it ends nowhere with nothing gained.

Even the arguably melancholic finale fits as the slow building of the plot concludes with Castro being still an elusive figure beyond reach from everyone. [Major Spoiler Warning] Likely to have killed himself, all done outside the car in a long take, by driving repeatedly gently into a nearby wall, whilst a crutchless Acuña has to wander from the countryside back for reconnaissance. [Spoilers End] For myself, whilst this type of cinema has thankfully been with us for decades and into the modern day, I have always had a fondness for an era of World Cinema between 2000 to 2009, which this is just on the cusp of, an era where cinema from many nations was distributed on DVD in the United Kingdom in large amounts, and were always chimeras of genre where you had no idea what to expect from any of them. This was the rare case of one which was not released in that time, showing how many films have be produced over the decades, but it would have fit among them easily. It sadly is the sort of work that is AWOL more nowadays were it not for rare cases like MUBI making them available, even if briefly. Castro is the kind of film, if it was easily available, you could return to and find the same pleasure even over multiple viewings from, something in particular as it offers a renewed interest in Alejo Moguillansky for me to see his films if I can.  Knowing one of the producers was Mariano Llinás adds an additional touch as, the director of Extraordinary Stories (2008) with its four hours of weaving narratives, and known for his contributions in others' work in his homeland, Castro feels of a piece of that type of work if also its own creation.