A German actor with a broken heart travels to Uruguay in search of his wife and falls in with a motley crew of emotional misfits. Gun shots, screaming, and lots of running through dark corridors ensue, accompanied by a menacing techno soundtrack. Oh, and it’s a comedy.
The Uruguayan feature Los enemigos del dolor is the directorial debut of seasoned Uruguayan cinematographer Arauco Hernández (Gigante, La vida útil) and will have its world premiere today as part of the Locarno Film Festival’s Cineasti del presente competition. Hernández didn’t cut any corners for his first feature and hired an A-list crew, including famed German director of photography Thomas Mauch (Aguirre, Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo) to hold down the visuals. The result looks something like a mashup of Martin Scorcese’s After Hours and some unmade Quentin Tarantino film.
Touted as a “comedia noir,” we can assume this is either a black comedy with a French twist, or comedy mixed with elements of the classic crime genre, film noir. Either way, the movie’s sense of humor is a little hard to grasp from the contents of the trailer, but I imagine the outdated techno music and the shamelessly 70s title design are part of the director’s tongue-in-cheek retro aesthetic. Plus, Uruguayan humor isn’t exactly made for 2-minute trailers — they seem to get as much joy out of a bumbling film scholar with funny glasses as Americans get out of dick and fart jokes. Pero son gustos…