UNDER $10

 It’s 1999 in Buenos Aires. Mario, Laura, Pablo and Vicky are in their mid-20s and ready for careers, love and adulthood. Over the next decade, Argentina’s economy will collapse and their lives will take a series of unexpected turns. In this fast-paced, multilayered “mega fiction,” director Mariano Pensotti (one of the most noted experimental directors throughout the world) deftly unfolds the lives of these four characters. El pasado es un animal grotesco (The Past is a Grotesque Animal) is a funny and moving portrait that takes place atop a slowly spinning turntable stage; a reminder of time’s ceaseless march. Guided by a narrative voice-over, we are granted access to a string of defining moments in the touching and tumultuous lives of the group. Moments that illustrate how quickly and easily real life can transform into fiction and back again.