Los Bilbao

Through an empathetic register, the film follows the story of Iván, Yamila and Luz, the Bilbaos, a fractured family marked by absence, and the gestures, frictions and unique moments around them. Their bond doesn’t come just from a prison past but from the violence and marginalization in which they grew up.

"The camera sticks to the sturdy shoulders of a thirty-something man as he walks down the corridors that lead him out of the prison of Buenos Aires, where he has just served a five-year sentence. This man is Iván Bilbao, one of the protagonists of Rancho (2021), Pedro Speroni’s previous feature film. The filmmaker has now decided to film Bilbao's new-found freedom in Chascomùs, his home town. This is where the latter resumes a now "orderly" existence with Yamila, his pregnant girlfriend, and Yamila's daughter Luz, whom he treats like his own. But his return proves to be chaotic. Between his pawnbroking business - in which he lends money to the even less fortunate than him -, arguments with friends and family that sometimes turn violent, drug-fueled escapades, and his return to boxing, Iván seems to grapple with the normality of civilian life, as if he were its involuntary prisoner. He tries to do the right thing but ends up doing the opposite; one hand strokes, while the other holds back its blows. Speroni does not judge, holding the camera at a distance in order to observe the Bilbaos in static sequence shots. He is an impartial and emphatic witness to their squalls, but also to the flashes of tenderness which sometimes emerge, highlighting the harshness of their social condition."
(Emmanuel Chicon - Visions du Réel)

A través de un registro empático, la película sigue la historia de Iván, Yamila y Luz, los Bilbao, una familia fragmentada atravesada por la ausencia, y los gestos, roces y momentos únicos alrededor de ellos. No sólo los une un pasado marcado por la prisión, sino por la violencia y la marginalidad en que crecieron.