Historias extraordinarias (Extraordinary Stories)

X witnesses a murder and becomes entangled in a web of conspiracies. Z takes a job in a sleepy provincial town and delves into his predecessor’s secret past. H sails down the Salado River in search of the remains of a forgotten engineering project. These could well be the makings of cheap novels – and Gabriel Chwojnik’s playful, pulpy soundtrack reveals just how deliberately the film flirts with the tradition of adventure novels and gritty detective fiction. Yet Mariano Llinás uses these pulp ingredients for something bolder: a cheerful assault on the conventions of cinema. Like a mischievous rebel, he knocks them down and uses the rubble to build a majestic labyrinth of mysteries. Thus, Historias extraordinarias becomes not only an ode to Argentina, but also to a land without borders: that of the imagination. The viewer has no choice but to surrender to the pulsating power of the story.