For his debut feature film Argentinian filmmaker Lucas Santa Ana’s story is about three teenage male best friends who in 1996 go on a beach camping vacation together which ends up changing their relationships with each other for good.
Dani (Javier De Pietro) is the videographer of the group filming all their activities including when they horseplay around, Adri (Agustin Pardella) is the geeky one who is socially awkward especially amongst the opposite sex, and Santi (Marcos Ribas) is the confident handsome one of the three. Like boys of their age that have still to lose their virginity, there is constant flow of juvenile sexual innuendo between them, which has a deeper meaning for Dani who is harboring a secret crush on Santi. As the two never exchange more than occasional lingering glance, it’s impossible to gauge if Santi has similar feelings.
It doesn’t however stop Santi flaunting his naked body to Dani when they are sunbathing alone on the beach, and when they follow this up with swim and fooling around in the ocean, Santi unexpectedly kisses Dani, which he seems to immediately regret once they are back on dry land.
The appearance of a topless Julieta (Luana Pascual) on the beach one day seems to dramatically alter the dynamics between the three boys, especially when Santi without hesitating just moves in on her and ends up staying the night in her tent. However the moment Julieta starts to want to turn this into something more than a one-night stand, Santi’s ardor immediately disappears, and so a rather annoyed Julieta turns her attention to the virginal Adri who has been eyeing her up with his puppy dog eyes, and takes off with him instead.
Now alone with Santi, Dani finally gets the night of passion that he has been dreaming about but whilst he is happy to publicly accept his sexuality, a confused Santi wants to turn the clock back to when their relationship was still a uncomplicated and untested friendship.
There is nothing new about this rather charming and very simple wee coming-of-age story with it’s very slight plot, but Santa Ana’s young talented cast bring a freshness to it all, which makes for an entertaining take on this tale of unrequited love.
Labels: 2016, Argentinian, coming of age, drama, nudity
