In Uruguay, they don't say cheese in front of the camera - they say whisky. Beneath the artificially photographed smiles, however, is a blueprint for the "South American Gothic," minus the farm and the forks. These Montevidean folks' stony expressions belie a life gripped frozen by accustomed routines. So it goes with an old Jewish bachelor who owns an ageing sock factory. When his estranged younger brother decides to visit for their mother's burial, he asks his employee Marta to pose as his wife. The resulting encounter creates clumsy silences that are uncomfortably comic. Grand Prize, Tokyo Film Festival and FIPRESCI prize from Cannes.
