La Ciénaga

Two lethargic middle-class families spend a stifling heatwave immobilised at a summer house, in Lucrecia Martel's languid debut feature.

La Mandrágora, a crumbling summer house on the edge of a rainforest, has seen better days. For Mecha, the matriarch of the house, a red wine-soaked afternoon by the pool is interrupted when she falls over and is rushed to hospital. Her son visits to check up on her, her cousin’s family arrives from the city to make use of their stagnant swimming pool and there’s the promise of a trip to nearby Bolivia. However, these distractions from their middle-class listlessness are short-lived. 

Curator's Note

The so-called Salta Trilogy (also including The Holy Girl and The Headless Woman) kicks off with Lucrecia Martel’s impressive and highly acclaimed debut feature. Based on Martel’s memories of her own family and shot entirely in her hometown of Salta, La Ciénaga is both a personal film and a detailed snapshot of an Argentinean middle-class whose privilege has been squandered away.

The film premiered at the 51st Berlin International Film Festival where it competed for the Golden Bear and won the Alfred Bauer Award for “opening new perspectives on cinematic art”.