LA CIÉNAGA

LA CIÉNAGA, 2001

Argentina, France, Spain |DVD, Color, 103' |Spanish
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Cast: Mercedes Morán, Graciela Borges, Martín Adjemián

Lucrecia Martel’s first feature-length film La Ciénaga uses elements from soap operas to portray the summer days of two bourgeois families living in the humid Salta area.The film begins with a party scene next to the swimming pool, which has not been cleaned in a long time. With the attitude of a documentary filmmaker, Martel depicts the adults drinking constantly while lying around next to the pool or in front of the fan inside the house away from the sweltering heat on one side and the teenagers having fun by hunting the wild animals that have been trapped in the swamp on the other. Throughout the film, the various accidents and little dangers the characters avoid as well as the environmental conditions of the geography they are living in all call attention to the notion of “threat.” Sudden tropical rains and the never-ending thunders accompanied by the sound of strong winds emphasize the social corruption of the characters and the eerie atmosphere the country seems to be in.