MARIA 6 points
Argentina, 2024
Address: Gabriel Grieco and Nicanor Loreti
Script: Nicanor Loreti
Duration: 76 minutes
Performers: Sofía Castiglione, Malena Sánchez, Daria Panchenko, Juan Palomino, Demián Salomón, Andrea Rincón, Ezequiel Rodríguez.
Premiere: Available in rooms.
Genre film production in Argentina is an interesting case. With a spirit close to punk and a lot of self-management, so far in the 21st century a group of directors, scriptwriters and actors began to depart from the tradition of a national cinema accustomed to moving along the classic axis of drama and comedy, to advance on the so-called minor genres, from horror and science fiction to action and police. It belongs to that aspect MARIAa film directed by two hands by two of the most recognized names in that area, such as Gabriel Grieco and Nicanor Loreti.
In MARIA It is possible to trace the DNA of one of the most prolific lines of local genre cinema. His argument helps to find the end of the ball. After a car accident in Miami, the body of erotic film star María Black disappears without leaving a trace. But a few years later, in the underworld of the most clandestine porn, the young girl reappears, immaculate, in a sordid filming on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Two girls who make up the technical team arrive there, summoned by a blackmailing director who is assisted by a dark guy who looks more like a thug than a producer.
Filmed with an aesthetic that combines the atmosphere of eighties cyberpunk with the self-conscious ingenuity of B-class productions, MARIA It is not a subtle film. Starting from a tragic event that takes place during the first scene of filming, the protagonists find themselves involved in a plot that includes everything from the porn industry to human trafficking, in its most abominable versions. And a turn towards science fiction, in which the rise of artificial intelligence is linked to feminism through one of the classic resources of the genre since the ’80s, a decade that the majority of Argentine filmmakers in the field have as reference.
In MARIA Neither logic nor continuity matters as much as the playful impulse of cinematography in its most plebeian version. That is why the film accumulates subplots less concerned with resolving the conflicts that are opening, but with doing so in a way shocking. With this objective, all the powers of production are put at the service not so much of a story as of a concept: replicating at a local level the most popular thing in cinema. made in hollywood. But the film does not take a direct path to achieve its objective, but instead chooses to look at itself in another mirror: that of Italian cinema of the 70s and 80s, where genre stories were replicated deformed, in a forced search for their formal and narratives. This is where we must look for the proud lineage that those responsible for MARIA They hug with every intention.
