THE CURRENTS (LAS CORRIENTES) World Cinema

While in Switzerland to accept an award for her work as an acclaimed fashion designer, Lina (Isabel Aimé González Sola) finds herself drawn to the frigid Alpine waters and inexplicably jumps in. Unhurt, but badly shaken, Lina returns to her home in Buenos Aires a changed woman. Now deathly afraid of water, she refuses to shower, resorting to increasingly unorthodox methods to bathe herself. Falling deeper into a depression, she sleepwalks through meetings and fittings at work and finds it hard to resume her duties as a mother. Her clueless husband (Esteban Bigliardi) doesn’t make life any easier, oblivious to the existential crisis happening right in front of his face. Quiet mysteries unfold as Lina reaches into the depths of her past, hoping to discover the root cause of her malaise. With surreal flourishes and bursts of absurdity, filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler casts a beguiling, dreamlike spell that delicately examines motherhood, class and identity. –Josh Gardner