By: Gurnoor Jhajj, SFU Student
On September 14, the 23rd Vancouver Latin American Film Festival wrapped up its ten-day run full of movies, music, food, and a collective enjoyment of Latin American cinema and its charms. The festival’s closing night featured El Jockey, a peculiar dark comedy by Argentine director, Luis Ortega, featuring music from Collective SUR, a Latin American band consisting of local talent. I didn’t know what to expect walking into the VLAFF for the first time, but by the end of the night, I left with a story, a new perspective on the city I have lived in for the past 19 years, and a newfound love for vintage Latin American music.
Before the screening, the organizers reflected on the festival’s closing night, highlighting all the movies and short films shown from over 15 countries. The Consul General of the Argentine Republic in Vancouver, Ricardo Arredondo, also spoke about Argentine culture, referencing El Jockey in the process. Awards were also presented to shorts and New Directors competition, with Welcome taking home the prize for the former category, and My Chest is Full of Sparks being honoured by the Youth Jury for the New Directors category. These conversations and awards set the scene for the closing film and encapsulated the festival’s celebration of Latin American cinema and the community.
The film itself is a story set in the world of horse racing, but it quickly shifts into a surreal, complex and absurd dark comedy that makes you rethink everything. Ortega doesn’t follow a simple flow in the movie; instead, he mixes humour and absurdity that makes the audience laugh, yet also unsettles them. The film stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, one of Argentina’s most famous actors, as Remo Manfredini, a legendary Jockey, and Úrsula Corberó, famously known for playing Tokyo in Money Heist, as another Jockey and his girlfriend, Abril. After a life-threatening accident, Remo disappears from the hospital and roams the streets of Buenos Aires, leaving his past behind and discovering who he really is. The movie, at its core, is about ambition, morality, and ever changing and unpredictable human nature.
What stood out to me the most about the movie was the way it mixed comedy with dark undertones. The theatre was frequently filled with laughter at moments, proving that Ortega’s humour struck a chord even across cultural and language differences. These shifts between dark humour and absurdity often left me wondering whether I should laugh, feel uneasy, or both. Biscayart and Corberó also portrayed their complex characters beautifully, depicting the slightest emotions through their eyes. The music score was a major contributor to the film’s mood. It featured Argentine songs from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, mixing the vintage music with newer sounds from different languages, creating a contrast of both nostalgia and absurdity, matching the scenes. As I went home afterwards, I added the soundtrack to my playlist and logged onto Letterboxd to write a review. This small act reminded me that some movies just don’t end when the credits roll, but they leave the theater with us sneaking into our lives.
The end credits rolled, and the theatre buzzed with a final sense of laughter and conversation, the festival coming to an end. Latin American storytelling shone throughout its ten days, and El Jockey ended it with an unexpected yet memorable twist.
Through humour and sophistication, the film served as a physical reminder of why festivals like this matter. They bring global voices to Vancouver and give the audience a chance to learn, laugh, and live across borders, all on the big screen.