Mariano Pensotti: The Past Is A Grotesque Animal (El pasado es un animal grotesco)

A large-scale revolving set magically transforms into dozens of different locales as a quartet of characters tracks a decade of love, loss and adventure in this internationally acclaimed work from Argentine writer-director Mariano Pensotti. In a fast-paced, multilayered “mega-fiction”, The Past follows the evolution of its complex characters as Argentina’s economy collapses and their lives and hopes take unexpected twists and turns. Pensotti avoids sentimental stereotypes at the same time that he reveals a generation’s self-regard with emotional profundity and searing humor. Ingeniously, the circular set is in near-constant motion, allowing for key moments of the drama to be foregrounded until they recede from view, reminding the characters—and us—how quickly a given moment can turn into a distant fiction only to emerge again. In Spanish with English subtitles.