Secret Wedding

A naked man emerges at dawn on the deserted streets of Buenos Aires. Arrested and questioned, he protests total ignorance of his identity or past; but files lead the police to assume he is one Fermin Garcia, a bus driver and political activist reported to have been executed 13 years before. He travels to a remote village to find his girlfriend; she, like the other villagers, doesn't recognise him... Agresti's third feature, part love story, part political drama, returns to a theme from his earlier Love Is a Fat Woman: the spectre of the desaparecidos, the thousands who 'vanished' in Argentina's unfunny dirty little war. Again he employs parable to investigate the hypocrisy at work in the 'new democratic' Argentina, his target the unholy trinity of church, business and state. This, a calmer, more mature and subtle film, has beautiful colour compositions which lend dignified repose to the rural landscape; the performances (Haas' Fermin is excellent) are restrained and expressive. Fired by a feeling of intense, hidden anger and disappointment, the film has all the persuasive force of a nightmare giving way to reality.