Arturo a los 30

Buenos Aires in March 2020, just days before the outbreak of the pandemic. A wedding is being celebrated; a car overturns. The guests share joints, kisses, a blow job and the memory of a loss. At the centre of this comedy of errors is 30-year-old Arturo, played by director Martín Shanly. He is every bit as drawn to misfortune as he is directionless – qualities he shares with the remainder of the film’s characters. His faux pas and blunders stand in inverse relation to the finesse with which the film elegantly glides back in time from the wedding day to the 2010s. As episodes from Arturo’s life come to the fore – a bus trip to Patagonia with his trans housemate, a painfully awkward dress rehearsal for a play – narrative time is compressed and then extended again, all while a voiceover provides a steady counterweight to the tumult.

As the hit song “Azúcar amargo” (Bitter sugar) comes on and the dancefloor fills, the bittersweet nature of the film comes across with every bit the same clarity as the coughing that proceeds it – elbow etiquette is still yet to materialise. (Cristina Nord)

Production Jerónimo Quevedo, Victoria Marotta, Paloma Torras, Franco Bacchiani. Production company Un Puma (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Director Martín Shanly. Screenplay Martín Shanly, Ana Godoy, Federico Lastra, Victoria Marotta. Cinematography Federico Lastra. Editing Ana Godoy. Music Manque La Banca. Sound design Nahuel Palenque. Sound Virginia Scaro. Production design Clara Miani. Costumes Marina Claypole. Make-up Lucia Rastelli. Assistant director Ignacio Ceroi. Production manager Paloma Torras. Executive producer Jerónimo Quevedo, Victoria Marotta. With Martín Shanly, Camila Dougall, Julia Azcurra, Ivo Colonna Olsen, Paul Grinszpan, Paul Dougall, Esmeralds Escalante, María Soldi, Miel Bargman, Javier Abril Rotger, Ezequiel Diaz, Constanza Dougall, Carolina Dougall, Franco Bacciani.

Martín Shanly, born in 1988 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he studied film and now works as a screenwriter, actor and filmmaker. Following his debut JUANA A LOS 12 (2014), ARTURO A LOS 30 is his second directorial project.

Films: 2014: Juana a los 12 / About Twelve (75 min.). 2023: Arturo a los 30 / About Thirty.

Bonus Material