Inés (Erica Rivas), voice actress for Japanese fetish movies and singer at a professional choir, goes on a trip with her new boyfriend Leopoldo (Daniel Hendler) - and she soon notices he, more than anything else, is getting on her nerves. But when she locks herself inside a bathroom just to get away from him, she hears noises of a fight outside, and when she goes looking, she finds him pushed out of a window to his death. She is not herself afterwards, which especially affects her singing with the choir. And she also sees things that aren't there - but they don't feel like mere hallucinations. Inés' mother (Cecilia Roth) moves in with her to see that she gets better, but she seems to have an agenda of her own, and also seems dead-set to push her new fling Alberto (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) onto her. It seems only Nelson (Agustín Rittano), the sound engineer at the studio she does her voiceovers at, takes her seriously, even if his suggestions seem a bit out of this world. But at a recital of her choir she completely loses it, thinking she sees Leopoldo in the audience, so she pays a visit to Nelson who at the advice of an old actress (Mirta Busnelli) agrees to enter her dreamworld with her to fight whoever's the "intruder" into the real world who's obviously after Inés. But then Alberto awakens her from her dream even if he had no chance of knowing where she were, and Nelson seems to have disappeared from the world. And seeing how everybody around her reacts as if nothing had happened convinces her to finally take matters into her own hands - but does she even know what "matters" are?

In many ways, El Prófugo resembles Italian gialli from the 1970s, from an emphasis on the film's aesthetics to its very labyrinthine story that doesn't always make sense, but also its triplike elements, spots of oddness, and respect for the arts in general - whether this is even a conscious hommage though I can't honestly claim, as ultimately the film conquers very new ground of a metaphysical thriller with bits of social satire tacked on. But if this sounds a bit brain-heavy, it doesn't have to be, as the film, even if things often don't make sense - until much later at least - and not all questions are answered, flows at a nice pace and knows how to entertain, and heck, it even has a musical finale, so it makes a really good watch, at least for those open-minded enough for some utter weirdness.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find The Intruder at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find The Intruder here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai Something naughty? (Must be over 18 to go there!)   find The Intruder at adultvideouniverse.com

Thanks for watching !!!