FAMILY MEMBERS (Mateo Bendesky, 2019): Argentina

Reviewed by Charlene Huston. Viewed at 2019 AFI Film Festival, Los Angeles.

The first thing we hear under the opening credits is the sound of some sort of vehicle moving… We soon find out we are in a train where two very sad looking young adults, a boy, Lucas (Tomas Wicz) and a girl, Gilda (Laila Maltz) are sitting next to each other lost in their own thoughts. 

They arrive at their destination after dark and walk to a simple house with police tape on the door.  They cut through it and enter the dark house.  Over the next few moments we learn these characters are brother and sister and something has happened in the bathroom which they refuse to enter.  While brushing their teeth in the kitchen sink, they fight, the way siblings do, about who will sleep in the bedroom, and who will sleep on the couch.

This movie is like a psychological road trip … the mystery of what happened in the bathroom continues throughout the film and our curiosity is sustained as time goes by.

The next day, they take a hand prosthesis to the sea and toss it into the water and we learn that it is the hand of their dead mother and that they have come home to bury her.  The police have not yet released her body and so, they must fill their time, and we get a glimpse of how they each deal differently with their mother’s death.

At first, Lucas sleeps in the bedroom and dreams he is crawling into a deep hole at the beach.  To pass the time, Lucas goes out and parties with strangers while Gilda stays home and sends nude selfies to her boyfriend.  She is mystically inclined as she reads tarot cards, foreshadowing her relationship to the spirit world.

They both have vivid imaginations and we get the sense that they were estranged even before their mother died, but over the course of the film, they admit they’ve missed each other and they get to know each other again in a series of tender scenes when they let down their guard enough to share their grief … yet they still keep secrets from each other and when they are ready to leave town, only to find out there is a bus strike, they choose to ride it out and spend time getting to know each other again.

The pace of the film is slow, which allows us to sink into and ponder the reality of grief our two main characters are experiencing.

Lucas meets a young man named Guido (played well by Alejandro Russek) who is obsessed with fitness and as their relationship deepens, we see that he provides both escape and solace for tender Lucas.

The music works very well in this film, especially when a CD by a band called “Mindfuck” plays in Guido’s car, reflecting all Lucas is going through.

I am always interested in a filmmaker who is both writer and director.  This is Mateo Bendesky’s 4th film and it was nominated for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival, and won a Special Mention for Feature Film at the Cinema Jove – Valencia International Film Festival in Spain.

After the screening, the Director gave us some insight into what motivated him to make this film … he wanted to write about siblings and grief; and he shared that it was hard to find the right tone for this script.  It was interesting to note that they had a rehearsal period of fouth months where they worked together  3 x per week … which proabably accounts for how intimate the complex relationship of these siblings under pressure feels.  They even hired a personal trainer to work with Tomas Wicz 3-4 x per week to ‘beef him up’ for his role when he meets and tries to match Guido’s level of fitness prowess.  These moments add much needed comic relief.

All in all, Family Members is a beautiful, insightful film, filled with surprises … a tale of love, loss and fitness for the mystically inclined soul.  Try to see it for yourself!