Based on the book by Elías Neuman of the same name, "El patrón, radiografía de un crimen" follows Hermogenes Saldivar (Joaquín Furriel), a farmhand from Santiago del Estero, working at a butcher shop after moving to Buenos Aires with his partner in search of a better life.
Directed by Sebastián Schindel, the movie touches upon class division, discrimination, corruption, and the struggles in the judicial system, problems that affect Argentina.
As a working-class and illiterate individual, Hermogenes struggles to find job options and sees himself as someone not capable of much owing to an injured knee. He finds a job at one of the butcher shops of Latuada (Luis Ziembrowski), where he is behind the counter and in charge of heavy lifting and cutting and preparing meat.
Latuada, referred by Hermogenes as "El patron," is not the best boss. His daily mistreatment to his employee and his partner Gladys (Monica Lairana) illustrates not only the prevailing discrimination still present in South America but also how he conducts his businesses. His proclivity for selling putrid meat, deceiving his customers, and putting them at risk epitomizes the stale air of the whole affair. Like the stench of rotting meat permeating everything in its wake.
Meat is at the core of the story and plays an important role in the visuals with sequences that strike for their physicality in handling it. Moments that aim at evoking disgust and also understanding the harsh reality of its protagonist. They could be compared to what Coralie Fargeat many years later did in The Substance (2024), taking the contact with food to another level by the many uses of close-ups and the sound treatment. And while not as shocking without the attention to sound, Schindel's feature film manages to infuse these places with a suffocating putrid smell that would tempt anyone to try vegetarianism.
The cast manages to portray the events in a believable fashion from beginning to end. Furriel is more than convincing in his role; the way he speaks, the way he looks, and the way he behaves capture Hermogenes perfectly. Ziembrowski gives his character the credibility to evoke antipathy and create a distance between Latuada and the audience.
"El patrón, radiografía de un crimen" examines the events that led Hermogenes being at odds with the law after so much time suffering in silence and the involvement of lawyer Marcelo Di Giovanni (Guillermo Pfening), who will see to bring justice to the case.
