Centaurs are mythical creatures. Half human, half horse. Gauchos resemble centaurs. Like the latter, they are a practically extinct species. Nor is there much left of their culture of nomadic cattle breeding. But there are still some survivors of the species left, especially in the north of Argentina.

Gauchos don’t do much. Nor do they talk much. They are! In the most intense fashion. Director Nicolás Torchinsky portrays an old couple’s companionship and conflicts. Which means that we, too, for the length of a film participate in this way of being in a world that seems to have been forgotten by time. We watch them like a nocturnal fire that will slowly die away in the morning if it’s not fed. Above the fire: the constellation of the Centaur, a prominent constellation in the southern sky. If it was up to the stars, the gaucho would surely still be a mythical hero. But in this world things aren’t up to the stars but to the will of people or, even more prosaic, to circumstances – and circumstances won’t have it so.

Ralph Eue