09/10/2023 - In his new thriller, Aritz Moreno portrays with black humour the disadvantages of travelling by car and, above all, of being a perfect wretch

Flies [+see also:
interview: Aritz Moreno
film profile] is the title of Aritz Moreno's second feature film after the success of Advantages of Travelling by Train [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (nominated for four Goyas and the European Film Award for Best Comedy) which is currently competing in the Official Section of the 56th Sitges Film Festival.

Its screenplay is written by Javier Gullón (who also wrote the screenplay for Advantages of Travelling by Train and for Enemy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), which is based on the successful novel Que de lejos parecen moscas by the Buenos Aires writer Kike Ferrari. This new tragicomedy from the Basque filmmaker stars Ernesto Alterio, who worked before with Moreno in Advantages of Travelling by Train, supported by the Argentinean actors Claudio Rissi, Mara Bestelli, Tomás Pozzi and Gabriel Fernández.

This is a thriller with tension, ambition and revenge, shot in Buenos Aires - the city is portrayed in all its colossal dimensions -, where Luis Machi (played by Alterio) is a businessman fond of luxury, easy money and women; a despicable man who abuses his power and position whenever he can, but who suddenly finds himself in a tricky situation. One morning, driving along the motorway, he gets a flat tyre and when he goes to get the spare... he discovers the disfigured corpse of a stranger in his boot.

Someone has set him up. There begins a desperate ordeal to get rid of the body, discover its identity and find out who is behind all this "quilombo", as they say in Argentina and which the Real Academia Española defines as “mess, disturbance, ruckus, disorder”. Because the culprit may be one of the many enemies he has tirelessly cultivated over the years. From his own wife to his work colleagues, bodyguards or politicians. It could have been any of those he has stepped on to climb higher and consolidate his power, because for Mr Machi people are so insignificant that from above - from where he looks down on them thanks to his mega-complex of superiority - they look like flies.

A sinister quote from the great Morticia Adams opens the film, which from the very first minute does not take itself too seriously. This is an adrenaline-fuelled, ferocious and macabre game to which Moreno invites us, and before which the audience has two options: to accept its rules (forget about probability, embrace black humour and accept the bloody scenes, which the Sitges audience will enjoy) or not, in which case this will seem as absurd as Advantages of Travelling by Train.

Divided into chaotic temporal episodes separated by the name tags of those involved in the plot and a certain air of David Fincher's The Game, Flies is ultimately some entertainment with socially critical undertones (a full-fledged smackdown of the corrupt, unscrupulous rich people who, blinded by money, believe themselves to be all-powerful gods), because its visual pyrotechnics invite more jovial fun than thoughtful reflection.

Flies is a Spanish-Argentinian co-production from Morena Films for the Latin American platform ViX.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)