THE AURA

Esteban Espinosa (Ricardo Darín) is a taxidermist in Buenos Aires, a withdrawn man with a photographic memory and epilepsy. Before every seizure he experiences the aura, a moment of perfect clarity. In his mind he plans perfect heists without ever daring to carry one out. When his wife leaves him, he accepts an acquaintance’s invitation to a hunting trip in the forests of Patagonia. There he accidentally shoots a man dead – and discovers that the dead man had been planning a robbery of an armoured van carrying casino takings. Esteban steps into his plan. Fabián Bielinsky tells, in “The Aura” (Argentina 2005, original title “El aura”), the story of a man who acts for the first time.

After “Nueve reinas”, it was Bielinsky’s second feature film and his last; he died in 2006. The film combines neo-noir with a psychological interior view, in which crime appears as a question of perception. Argentina submitted it for the Foreign Language Oscar. “The Aura” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2007.