El Asaltante is an interesting filmic experiment directed by Pablo Fendrik, I can't think of a better way to describe this movie, shot in a very particular way and barely an hour long.
The plot of this film is the apex of simplicity: through the course of one day, a mature man visits multiple private schools of Buenos Aires. He enters pretending to be the father of a student and steals the tuition fees money collection.
Even though we follow the protagonist at all times we never learn his name. Throughout the film, the camera captures small moments that can help put together the profile of this man, but his motivations are never explained. From the perspective of simple movie viewers, we can do little more than to speculate about what goes on inside the mind of this cold, calculating, unflappable character.
This production adopts a rather extreme brand of hand-held filming style. Despite being able to frame the action properly in the key scenes of the film, the camera will remain locked on various close-ups of the protagonist for most of the movie. Furthermore, the severity of the shaky camera work, that rivals with the action scenes of The Bourne Supremacy, results in a visually unattractive production.
The cast offers subtle and credible performances. This is so, in part, because of the amount of time that we spend with the protagonist relative to the interventions of the rest of the cast, which are rather scarce. The interpretation of Arturo Goetz, who plays the protagonist, is note-worthy. Throughout the movie he doesn't display a particularly expressive personality, he doesn't speak much and his gestures aren't eloquent. But during the mugging, he transforms; in these scenes, masterly executed, the air becomes thick with tension and the true acting prowess of the protagonist comes to the foreground.
In conclusion, El asaltante is a very interesting experiment, a character study in the most scientific sense of the expression. Those who are keen on the idea of studying this character, observing him throughout a whole day, and are willing to tolerate the unorthodox filming style, will find a tense and interesting film. On the other hand, the ones that don't enjoy minimalist narration and erratic filming styles should abstain from watching this film.
This is the translation of a review first published in FilmAffinity, on the 21 of February of 2021. Written by Germán Dawidowski, translated with the help of Paula Marrodan.
