In this psychological drama, Lucrecia Martel explores complex relations of class, gender and race in postdictatorial Argentina. While driving through the austere Salta countryside, Verónica (María Onetto) hits something but does not stop to determine the identity or fate of her victim. Disturbed by the experience and losing touch with reality, Verónica confesses to her husband (César Bordón) that she killed someone on the road, but he assures her that she simply hit a dog. Just when everything seems to have gone back to normal, the police find a child’s body in a canal adjacent to where the accident had occurred. When Verónica attempts to retrace her steps from that fateful night, she finds no record of having been in the hospital or the hotel. Dying her hair for the hundredth time, Verónica returns to her comfortable life, indifferent once again to the infinite tragedies occurring around her on a daily basis.

Vera R. Coleman

Arizona State University