Jesús López

Jesús López is the telling name of a young race car driver who dies in an accident, leaving his Argentine home village in deep mourning. A dark cloud of paralyzing bewilderment hangs over the people. Then Jesús' cousin Abel (Joaquín Spahn), a drifting teenager, begins to change. Abel, who looks very similar to the young deceased, pretends to be Jesús. He puts on his clothes, moves in with Jesús' parents, and seeks closeness to his ex-girlfriend. The villagers' initially tolerant reaction, perhaps tempered by their grief, turns into growing unease about the unusual role play... A powerful Argentine drama about coping with grief and adolescent identity, told in haunting images. "Schonfeld did make a film that is filled with meaning, the director carefully manipulating our understanding of reality to convey the disconcerting message at the heart of the story. There are many ways that Jesús López can be interpreted, with the central intention of the film being to challenge our notions of the narrow boundary between reality and conjecture. It converges into this harrowing but poignant portrayal of grief, which ventures deep into the human condition and emerges layered with deep, sorrowful meaning and provocative content, which all leads to the process of decoding this mystifying but beautiful psychological drama." (Cédric Succivalli for: ics - international cinephile society)