From the director of "Nine Queens" comes the tale of an unshaven, epileptic taxidermist named Esteban (Ricardo Darin) who becomes enmeshed in a plot to rob a casino deep in the woods of Patagonia. The "aura" of the title refers to the feeling of deja vu that comes over him before he goes into one of his seizures, which happen at the worst times. The story is set in motion when - needing distraction after his wife leaves him - Esteban flies out to the Argentine wilderness to go deer hunting with a friend. Searching for something to give his life meaning, Esteban turns a hunting accident into a chance to take on the identity of someone else, a man named Dietrich. After accidentally shooting him, Esteban listens to Dietrich's cell phone messages, earns the trust of Dietrich's wife and wolf-like dog, and inherits the plans for a major robbery. Needless to say, nothing is what it seems in this woodsy film noir. A sense of alienation and strangeness pervades "The Aura," helped out by the film's languid pace, unusual camerawork, Darin's intensely inward performance, and an eerie electronic score by Lucio Godoy. Admirers of the work of Michael Antonioni, David Mamet, and/or James Dickey are advised to check this out, as it explores similar symbolic terrain, mapping the borderline between the wild and the civilized in both the woods of Argentina and the masculine unconscious.
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