Silvia Prieto
Argentina, 1999, 92 minutes. Directed by Martin Rejtman
A
minimalist deadpan comedy involving drifting characters and objects, the
film focuses on Silvia Prieto, a rather unexceptional young woman who
on her 27th birthday resolves to make some changes in her life –
changes that bring out a few eccentricities. When she discovers that there
are other women with her name, she develops a bizarre obsession with the
"other" Silvia Prieto, an obsession that has to do with unraveling
the riddle of her own identity. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "refreshingly
venturesome film," Silvia Prieto is a
meditation on what it means, or doesn't mean, to be yourself.
"The most precise and laconically hilarious dialogues ever written in Argentinian cinema since Niní Marshall's time. One of the funniest Angentinian comedies ever." – Horacio Bernades, Página/12
"Silvia Prieto could make you think of the Nanni Moretti from the 80's, some Rohmer, such as La femme de l' aviateur, or Jarmusch's Stranger than paradise.. However, Rejtman does not deserve to be compared to anyone at all, he already has his own 'music'." – Edouard Waintrop, Libération
"A surreal symphony from Argentina (...) Set in a world of Buenos Aires slackers, Martin Rejtman's understated smartcom is a movie in which identities proliferate and disappear. The scenes are often based on trifling non-sequiturs, the low-key compositions feel studied without seeming particularly rigorous, the lighting is never less than flat. It's the sense of alternate lives that casts the shadows." – Critic's Pick , February 20, 2001 – J. Hoberman, Village Voice
"...Rejtman has a sense of humor so bone-dry, it makes Jarmusch seem as broad as Jim Carrey (...) hugely endearning comedy, which is more like a state of mind than an ordinary movie." – The Miami Herald
Berlin International Film Festival 1999
Silver Condor Award at the Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards
1999
Buenos Aires International Film Festival of Independent Cinema 1999