Argentinian filmmaker Laura Citarella's two-part, postmodern mystery Trenque Lauquen revolves around Laura (Argentina, 1985's Laura Paredes), a missing botanist, and the two men who love her. Through a series of non-chronological chapters, Citarella gradually doles out information about Laura and her alter ego, Carmen.
As the first chapter, "The Adventure," begins, the men have joined forces to search for Laura. Salt and pepper-haired Rafael (actor and playwright Rafael Spregelburd), her boyfriend, is outgoing. Redheaded Ezequiel, aka Chicho (actor and producer Ezequiel Pierri), however, is the exact opposite. While Rafael speaks with townspeople who might have encountered Laura, Chicho finds a note she left behind, but decides to keep it to himself. Through his conversations, Rafael becomes convinced that Laura traveled to América (the city) to track down a rare orchid—and to avoid committing to their life together.
Citarella introduces a pre-disappearance Laura in "Ezequiel's Part," in which she and the Chicho, a single father, eat lunch, pick up his kids, and search for the orchid. While researching the life of scientist Carmen Zuna in "The Letters and the Books," "The Roads," and "Carmen Zuna," Laura discovers love letters exchanged between Carmen and Paolo Bertino tucked into books at the Trenque Lauquen ("Round Lagoon") library. When she shares the letters with Chicho, he becomes obsessed, too (in the film-within-a-film, Citarella plays Carmen, a free-spirited substitute teacher, and Pierri plays Paolo, her married lover).
As the mismatched men continue their travels in "Farewell, Farewell, I'm Going Away," Rafael admits that he had no idea Laura had a radio show, "Women Who Made History, " thus revealing the limits of his familiarity with the contours of her life, much as the men in Carmen's orbit didn't see her in her totality. "How could it be that no one noticed her?," Chicho wonders.
In "Rafael's Part," Laura's boyfriend learns through independent research about the erratic behavior she exhibited before disappearing, evidenced by piles of unpaid bills and non-returned clothing. Part one ends at that point.
At 262 minutes altogether, Trenque Lauquen might seem long, but it's a walk in the park compared to El Pampero Cine colleague Mariano Llinás's 808-minute La Flor, the longest Argentinian film to date. Notably, all three actors appeared in his 2018 epic, and they're quite good, especially the multifaceted Paredes, Llinás's partner. The actress and co-writer previously appeared in Citarella's 2011 debut, Ostende, an Éric Rohmer-style mystery writ on a significantly smaller scale.
With her third feature, a work six years in the making, Laura Citarella teases out the central mystery with droll and insightful digressions, while composer Gabriel Chwojnik keeps things lively with an ever-changing score that segues from mournful cello to jaunty acoustic guitar to an orchestral waltz and finally to a wistful, Theremin melody that recalls the whistling associated with Ennio Morricone's scores for Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, indicating a possible showdown in part two.
Where does this title belong on library shelves?
Laura Citarella's film belongs on Spanish-language, Argentinian, and foreign film shelves in academic and public libraries with titles by the other El Pampero Cine filmmakers: Mariano Llinás, Agustín Mendilaharzu, and Alejo Moguilansky.
What kind of film series could use this title?
Trenque Lauquen would fit with a film series on contemporary South American or Argentinian cinema.
What type of instructors will use this title?
College-level film and literature instructors could make effective use of Trenque Lauquen, though the length may prove daunting. The film's labyrinthine structure has merited comparisons to the work of Argentinian short story writer Jorge Luis Borges.