Laura Citarella's 'Trenque Lauquen': A Town Where Mysteries Deepen

A masterpiece. This is Laura Citarella's fourth feature film, and her second as a solo director. Citarella is a member of "El Pampero Cine," a production group (or company?) representing the new generation of Argentine cinema, alongside Mariano Llinás, Alejo Moguillansky, and Agustín Mendilaharzu. They take turns serving as directors, producers, editors, DoPs, and actors, churning out films at an incredible pace. In this work, Citarella serves as director and screenwriter, Moguillansky as editor, and Mendilaharzu as one of the cinematographers. Originally, this film was planned as a sequel to Citarella's first feature Ostende, and Laura Paredes, who starred in that film, also participated in the screenplay; the protagonist also shares the same name. Regarding this, the director stated, "Even if the name is the same, it is about a Laura who lived a different life." Also, like other works from "El Pampero Cine," this film is divided into two parts across 12 chapters, with a massive runtime of 260 minutes.

The story begins with the disappearance of Laura, a botanist. Rafael, a colleague nearly a decade her senior who claims to be her lover, and Ezequiel, a man of her age who met Laura through work, are searching for her together. The first and biggest clue is Ezequiel's car, which Laura borrowed and never returned. While Rafael insists that "Laura stole it," Ezequiel maintains that "Laura just borrowed it," and their perceptions remain at odds. Rafael says that Laura disappeared while looking for a new species of orchid and begins making inquiries, but Ezequiel, who is riding along, seems unmotivated. Then, the next chapter shifts to his flashback, revealing that he had actually been driving Laura around without Rafael's knowledge and that they had been investigating a "letter" she found together... and so, mystery calls to mystery, and the story continues to unfold by nesting these events within flashbacks, flashbacks within flashbacks, and delusions. The first part focuses on a 50-year-old love letter hidden in a book borrowed from a library, while the second part centers on an unidentified life form found in a park lake. As a whole, the film follows the mystery of Laura's disappearance, with all the characters chasing after missing pieces. The excitement never stops as the story is clearly too big for ordinary people to pursue on their own, and one gets to share in the pleasure of slowly unraveling the intricately intertwined mysteries. And as the layers of the story accumulate, words, props, and locations that appeared once take on new meanings when they reappear. We, along with the characters—or perhaps even discovering details they themselves missed—find changes in the details.

The fact that the mysteries are not solved at all, but rather deepen, is exactly the same feeling as confronting a human being. The hidden love letter in the first part is a transcription of the relationship between Laura, Rafael, and Ezequiel. By following the mystery of the letter, the film hints at the past of the three, as well as Ezequiel's romantic feelings through the relationship of the letter's authors (Carmen and Paolo), advancing the narrative on two levels. Just as the protagonists cannot grasp the true intentions of the senders, they cannot understand the hearts of the people right in front of them. In the second part's lake life-form incident, Laura becomes a participant and steps into the mystery, and the two women she meets there, Elisa and Romina, are contrasted with Rafael and Ezequiel in terms of age. Moreover, the relationship of a third party (Ezequiel, Laura) stepping into an existing relationship (Laura and Rafael, Elisa and Romina) is reversed, and this time, Laura is the point-of-view character as the "one who feels." The film vividly depicts how the romantic feelings Ezequiel held for Laura, who was obsessed with the letter, and the interest Laura held for the elusive Elisa, change from moment to moment (I strongly agree with a review that said it "captured the moment a person falls in love"). By this point, I feel it is not an exaggeration to say that everything that happens inside a human being is packed into this film, as we observe the changes in the characters.

As such, solving the mystery is not the theme; rather, as can be seen from the fact that they are challenging unsolvable mysteries, the letter, the unidentified life form, and Laura's disappearance are never solved. However, having walked through the 260-minute cinematic labyrinth together, I even felt as if we had been incorporated into a part of that mystery, and that is immensely comfortable. I hesitate to say this as it might belittle the work, but I felt I could positively embrace the idea that the world is filled with mysteries that cannot be solved.

・Film Data

Original Title: Trenque Lauquen
Runtime: 260 minutes
Director: Laura Citarella
Production: 2022 (Argentina)

・Rating: 90 points