In this dark, cruel allegory, whose surrealism recalls Buñuel and theme, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, an upright couple rent a room from an asocial sculptor. Taking a parental interest, the couple intrude into the sculptor's life, snooping through his belongings, then more actively, with "God on their side," attempt to structure his unconventional ways to meet their notions of decent living. Presenting themselves as typically Argentine (they cherish mementos won in a tango contest twenty years earlier), they reveal themselves as typically authoritarian, imposing repressive measures in the name of morality. Their facade of normalcy crumbles from pressures of their pasts surfacing in the present-a man questions them about his disappeared brother, a "professional hatred" is evidenced in their propensity for violent responses. Their regulatory measures, ever crueller, are followed by remorse, as they beg the sculptor "not to forgive, but forget." Filming in 1986, during debates regarding reconciliation, director José Santiso asserts the need neither to forgive nor forget, but to "disconnect"; a bad connection can blow a whole system. Kathy Geritz