Skeletons in the closet

The Quietude

The title The Quietude is reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, A Quiet Place and all the hushed horrors in between. But the newest from Argentine writer/director Pablo Trapero (The Clan) is actually a family drama, albeit one awash in the undercurrent of his country’s horrible history of military dictatorship.

It ’s also awash in sex. Look-alike actors Martina Gusman and Berenice Bejo star as sisters Mia and Eugenia, reunited on the family ranch (called La Quietud; now I get it) after years apart. They have an easy physicality with one another that extends to side-by-side self-pleasuring and, we later learn, sleeping with one another’s boyfriends. When it’ revealed that they used to run naked through the grounds as little girls, it’s hardly surprising; one wonders if they’re still at it.

Graciela Borges plays their mom, Esmeralda. She has dark secrets of her own, although they’re mostly political rather than sexual.

Trapero goes out of his way to make the siblings as indistinguishable as possible; one can almost imagine a farcical skew to this tale, with a husband protesting: “I didn’t know that was your sister!” But the menfolk mostly stay in the background here. The girls’ father has a stroke in the opening scene, and his gradual decline helps frame the story that follows.

Viewers who have at least read the Wikipedia page on late-20th-century Argentine politics will have an easier time with this beast. It may also help to fixate on slight differences in cheekbones between the stars, so as not to get them confused. One problem with having so many skeletons in the family closet is that skeletons all tend to look the same. ★★1/2