Sightseeing

Marcos (Matías Castelli) has just lost his job at a sweet factory and decides to complete a one-man play he’s been working on for some time in the hope of nailing a theatrical production and effectively initiating a change of career. He contacts Martín (Alberto Rojas Apel), an old school friend who is now a TV writer, and both men begin a tentative writing journey that also sees them picking up the threads of a friendship abandoned over a decade previously. Shot almost entirely in black and white, Acuña’s understated feature, co-produced by Pablo Trapero (Lion’s Den, La Rabia), is a warm, wry contemplation of the mechanics of friendship. With droll dialogue, two exquisite performances by Castelli as the grungy, disheveled Marcos and Rojas Apel – also co-writer of the screenplay – as the more taciturn, contemplative Martín – and a dynamic score by Uruguayan indie band La Foca, Sightseeing offers a thoughtful contemplation of masculine communication and the possibilities offered by moving on from a past that should never be allowed to overwhelm the present. —bfi