EXTRAÑO Latin Cinema Series

Winner of a 2003 Tiger Award, the jury of the Rotterdam Film Festival called EXTRANO” … a confident and mature debut that takes a bold risk, inventing its own visual language to describe the outer and inner world of a man who has become a stranger to life.”

The man is Axel (Julio Chavez), a surgeon who has given up his practice and is now grappling with a mid-life crisis. Soon after temporarily moving in with his sister and her children, he meets a single, pregnant woman, and a unique relationship blossoms. They are now two souls drawn together on their own existential quests.

Rather than getting tangled up with a complex narrative, excessive dialogue and a tidy resolution, Loza chooses a more original, sparse and contemplative path. He ably directs Behnisch’s camera to explore the minutiae of existence-a gentle touch on a pregnant belly, a glance between characters and, frequently, the deafening silences and emotional weight of someone lost in thought. The results are intimate, disconcerting and rich with subdued beauty.