Jakobo’s life is just like the small shoe-shop he runs in Montevideo: tidy and organised. Nothing seems able to move this unchanging routine that also governs his employees, including Marta who is secretly in love with her boss. Nothing except his brother Herman. Although planned, his visit triggers as many rifts in the characters as in the directing duo Stoll/Rebella. From there, the film slides into an acid and ironic comedy, underlining rituals and repetitions and making the everyday drama explode and reveal all that is covered up, including the feelings shared by Jakobo and Marta. The film’s austerity is thus erased, making way to a surprising grace and a joyful, iconoclastic vision of the Uruguayan middle class. GM
Participation in the 2002 Nantes Produire au Sud Workshop
