La Cienaga

There's little that can be called derivative about this droll, grim-faced comedy from Argentina, though Luis Bunuel's caustic social satire would appear to be the obvious reference point; it's as if director Lucrecia Martel took a hard look at the bourgeoisie and simply arrived at the same conclusions. Mecha (Graciela Borges), her husband Gregorio (Martin Adjemian) and their friends are spending another stiflingly humid summer's day swilling wine and lolling about the fetid swimming pool of La Mandragora, their crumbling summer estate, when the sound of thunder and the threat of rain rouses Mecha from her drunken midday torpor. But no sooner is she up than she's down...