96 mins |
Rated
Not Rated
Directed by Luis Ortega
Starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Daniel Fanego, Úrsula Corberó, Mariana Di Girolamo, Roberto Carnaghi, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart
Once-renowned jockey Remo Manfredi (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) has run out of track. Perpetually inebriated, hopped up on horse drugs, and in hock to a minor mafioso, Remo seems to have a death wish. His girlfriend and fellow jockey Abril (Úrsula Corberó) is pregnant, but more invested in the libidinous equestrian underworld than in their drab domestic existence. Remo’s only hope of getting out of debt and starting a new life is riding on Mishima, a thoroughbred specially imported from Japan for his next big race. When Mishima leaps over the fence, Remo winds up in the hospital with a life-threatening concussion. Hunted by the mob and replaced in Abril’s bed by the alluring Ana (Mariana Di Girolamo), Remo dons a disguise and finds himself as herself, wandering the streets of Buenos Aires in a striking mink coat and going by the name Dolores. A wild and surreal crime comedy from Luis Ortega (El Angel), Kill the Jockey explores the fluidity of identity, desire, and animal magnetism in a wholly original and unpredictable register.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The clash between the inner world and the outer one, is the battlefield where the movie takes place. The more intense the inner world of the
character, the more violent the clash with the outside.
Seeking salvation, the jockey will change identity over and over, trying to achieve freedom with one or another. But all the identities are tormented.
We must kill each and every one of our characters in order to be free, and even then, everything starts over again. A person feels unique and special, living an individual adventure, but it is in fact a collective one. And until humanity is not free in itself, we will always come back to life to be a part of that process. Inhabited by ghosts.
One day we wake up and we are a man. Another day we wake up and we are a woman. Another day, a baby. In any case, we never have the slightest
idea of what’s going on. Nor do we access the hidden forces behind life. The world seems to be arranged in such a way that we will never know
anything. But the true challenge for our protagonist is to not go crazy.
I chose Nahuel Pérez Biscayart for the lead role because of his curious nature, and the fact that he feels comfortable with not knowing. We are
accomplices regarding our own ignorance, that mystery that gives a fantastic gleam to everything.
Jack London published "The Star Rover" in 1915, in which the narrator is subjected to such intense physical tortures that he undergoes an anamnesis: the loss of forgetfulness. He can remember all his past lives. After the tortures, he is sentenced to death, but no one can strangle his immortality. That book, my own fatherhood, and a casual encounter with a drifter sparked the main ideas for this film.
—Luis Ortega
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Once-renowned jockey Remo Manfredi (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) has run out of track. Perpetually inebriated, hopped up on horse drugs, and in hock to a minor mafioso, Remo seems to have a death wish. His girlfriend and fellow jockey Abril (Úrsula Corberó) is pregnant, but more invested in the libidinous equestrian underworld than in their drab domestic existence. Remo’s only hope of getting out of debt and starting a new life is riding on Mishima, a thoroughbred specially imported from Japan for his next big race. When Mishima leaps over the fence, Remo winds up in the hospital with a life-threatening concussion. Hunted by the mob and replaced in Abril’s bed by the alluring Ana (Mariana Di Girolamo), Remo dons a disguise and finds himself as herself, wandering the streets of Buenos Aires in a striking mink coat and going by the name Dolores. A wild and surreal crime comedy from Luis Ortega (El Angel), Kill the Jockey explores the fluidity of identity, desire, and animal magnetism in a wholly original and unpredictable register.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The clash between the inner world and the outer one, is the battlefield where the movie takes place. The more intense the inner world of the
character, the more violent the clash with the outside.
Seeking salvation, the jockey will change identity over and over, trying to achieve freedom with one or another. But all the identities are tormented.
We must kill each and every one of our characters in order to be free, and even then, everything starts over again. A person feels unique and special, living an individual adventure, but it is in fact a collective one. And until humanity is not free in itself, we will always come back to life to be a part of that process. Inhabited by ghosts.
One day we wake up and we are a man. Another day we wake up and we are a woman. Another day, a baby. In any case, we never have the slightest
idea of what’s going on. Nor do we access the hidden forces behind life. The world seems to be arranged in such a way that we will never know
anything. But the true challenge for our protagonist is to not go crazy.
I chose Nahuel Pérez Biscayart for the lead role because of his curious nature, and the fact that he feels comfortable with not knowing. We are
accomplices regarding our own ignorance, that mystery that gives a fantastic gleam to everything.
Jack London published "The Star Rover" in 1915, in which the narrator is subjected to such intense physical tortures that he undergoes an anamnesis: the loss of forgetfulness. He can remember all his past lives. After the tortures, he is sentenced to death, but no one can strangle his immortality. That book, my own fatherhood, and a casual encounter with a drifter sparked the main ideas for this film.
—Luis Ortega
