Ana is driving, her face serious and angry. Beside her sits her husband Mateo, who is really tense and pleads for her to turn around. “Let’s wait a bit more,” replies Ana, but he commands her to do it right away. They finally turn back only to find just a child’s hat. It was meant to be a punishment, leaving their seven-year-old kid in the forest, but now he has disappeared.

The independent Chilean filmmaker usually makes intimate movies about couples and relationships, but this time he goes out to the forest and experiments with just one take and with a clockwork script that makes you cling to the seat. It’s the type of a story that captures you since the first frame, keeps you on your toes throughout the whole movie, and when you return to real life, it is still there with you.

The performances of the renowned Chilean actors Antonia Zegers (“The Dogs”, etc.) and Nestor Castillana entrap you, conveying the anguish of parents who don’t know if they are doing the right thing. With the help of amazingly complex actor performances, experienced young director Matias Bize (“La memoria del agua”, PÖFF 2015; “En La Cama”, remade by Julio Medem) raises many topics which sometimes are taboos and are not talked about: parenthood, relationships and people’s roles, all wrapped up in the skin of a thriller which creates an urgent wish to discuss it.

Javier Garcia Puerto