Pablo Giorgelli’s feature debut unfolds almost entirely along the fifteen hundred kilometres of highway that links Asunción, Paraguay, to Buenos Aires, a route that Rubén (Germán de Silva), a trucker with thirty years under his belt, knows well. Yet Las acacias disregards the pervading road-movie convention of decorating its journey with predictably unpredictable characters and instead detours, focusing its energies on the exchanges that transpire within the confines of Rubén’s cab — conversations that quietly accumulate into something tremendously moving.
After picking up a load of timber, Rubén meets up with Jacinta (Hebe Duarte), the friendly but unobtrusive woman whom Rubén’s boss has arranged for him to transport from Paraguay’s capital to Argentina’s, where Jacinta hopes to find work with the help of relatives. What the boss failed to mention was that Rubén’s human cargo would also include Anahí, Jacinta’s fivemonth- old daughter. The chilly, reticent Rubén, accustomed to the solitude of the road, might be able to ignore an adult, but Anahí’s persistent gaze threatens to wear down his stoic armour.
With Anahí bridging the gulf that separates driver’s seat from passenger seat, Jacinta gradually draws out some details about Rubén’s past and forges the foundations for a genuine connection — the sort our protagonist has likely needed for a long time. The elegant finale of Las acacias suggests this connection might continue even after Rubén delivers Jacinta to her cousin’s door.
The simplicity of the film’s narrative is complemented by the sophistication of its execution. Giorgelli’s aesthetic is spare, employing no score or flamboyant stylistic touches, yet what drives his structural rigour isn’t formalism for its own sake. Giorgelli’s emphasis lies solidly on the rhythms of his characters’ interactions, rhythms rendered precisely by editor María Astrauskas, who happens to be Giorgelli’s wife. De Silva and Duarte provide mutually attentive, warmly lived-in performances that allow us to track the development of their characters’ relationship without needless signposts — though the film’s infant co-star, Nayra Calle Mamani, nearly steals the show, underlining the adults’ rediscovery of tenderness through her own hapless and abundant curiosity. –TIFF
