IN Argentinean writer/director Ana Piterbarg’s debut feature (after much TV experience), plans unfold almost accidentally, threads slowly combining to display dramatic issues in a tense and involving crime thriller.

With employee Rosa (Sofia Gala), Pedro operates an apiary beside one of the streams forming the Tigre river delta, just north of Buenos Aires, where paediatrician Agustin and his wife Claudia (Soledad Villamil) are about to finalise an adoption.

Viggo Mortensen plays both men, twins who have not contacted each other for more than a decade.

When Agustin opts out of the adoption, Claudia leaves him. Shortly after, Pedro, suffering terminal cancer, arrives at their apartment. Agustin drowns him in the bath and returns to the apiary pretending to be Pedro.

These events establish the platform for a drama in which every sequence either provides a new tension or ratchets an old one tighter. Rosa, Adrian and Agustin move the plot toward resolution in a beautiful if somewhat bleak river environment.

The absence of happiness or humour don’t diminish the effectiveness of the film’s unhurried pace, deftly defined relationships and performances all on the mark, especially Mortensen playing two characters often in the same scene.

At Capitol 6 and Palace Electric