Los delincuentes (The Delinquents)

A choice like no other: work in a bank for another 25 years until retirement or three years behind bars and not having to work for the next 22, but getting paid as if you were still going to the office every day. It's an offer no one will ever get, but that is not a problem for Morán: it's a choice he has made for himself. Here's the thing: a quarter of a century before his retirement, he has decided to rob the bank where he works. He will steal $650,000. That's twice the amount he would earn until his retirement. He asks his colleague Rámon to hide the money while he serves his prison sentence. Because there is of course no doubt he will get caught. Indeed, Morá plans to turn himself in, confess to the theft, but obviously he won't reveal where he hid the loot. Half the money is for him, the other half for Rámon. But by the time Morán propose to his colleague, the theft has already taken place. Los delincuentes even begins with it. The sequence already stands as the quietest, most banal bank robbery in film history. Rámon barely gets a chance to think about the proposal, because his colleague says that if he refuses, he will tell the authorities that they plotted the robbery together.

Fascinating stuff, but this is only the beginning of this unclassifiable film with which Rodrigo Moreno holds the viewer spellbound for three hours. Of course, it is no coincidence that Rámon and Morán are anagrams. Their lives intertwine and mirror each other. Rámon has to face a toxic executive in the bank, while staying in prison is not the holiday Morán imagined it to be - thanks to a gang leader who makes his life miserable. Both antagonists are even played by the same actor.

The rest of this delightful adventure is best discovered in the theatre. At times, Moreno lets his film slide into surreal territory. Important to know: Los delincuentes is - on paper - a comedy. Not one that makes you laugh out loud, but an intelligent, restrained film that constantly makes you grin.

“There are movies that grab you by the throat and refuse to let go until the story ends. And there are others that playfully guide you into stories that start off simply enough, then blossom and fold in on themselves several times over, leading to endings that are more like beginnings. Rodrigo Moreno’s Los delincuentes is the latest feature from Argentina to fit the latter category. Three hours long and divided into two parts, it starts off as a leisurely, shaggy dog crime story, with what’s probably one of the most laid-back bank robberies in film history. But then it digresses, deepens and complexifies, creating new mysteries out of old ones, and love affairs out of the thin air.” - The Hollywood Reporter