Trenque Lauquen: Parte I & II

Kevin Toma, journalist at Volkskrant, never had a favorite film—until he fell in love with the Argentine mystery Trenque Lauquen (2022). He discovered the four-hour masterpiece online while searching for (nearly) forgotten gems. What began as a personal fascination grew into a contagious obsession with a film that cannot be captured in a single breath. He wrote a major article about it in Volkskrant.

During the 013 International Film Festival in Tilburg, the film was shown in the Netherlands for the first time with specially created Dutch subtitles. This marked an important step in making the film accessible to a wider audience.

Now Trenque Lauquen returns to Cinecitta. A rare chance to let yourself be carried away—again (or for the first time)—by this hypnotic cinematic epic about getting lost, longing, and endlessly branching stories.

In the Argentine town of Trenque Lauquen, Laura suddenly disappears without explanation. While her boyfriend and a colleague search for her, they uncover secrets she left behind: a hidden romantic correspondence, cryptic botanical clues, and traces of stories intertwined with her own. Told in twelve chapters across two parts, the film unfolds slowly. Trenque Lauquen moves between genres—part detective story, part road movie, part feminist reflection on autonomy and desire. The viewer is challenged to unravel Laura’s motives, while the film raises questions about identity, knowledge, and how stories are told.

Volkskrant journalist Kevin Toma wrote: “The miraculous, deeply human, intimate and beautifully mysterious Trenque Lauquen is a slow-cinema mix of Jacques Rivette and David Lynch, with touches of Hitchcock’s Psycho and Otto Preminger’s Laura, but without violence. And above all: completely original and unique. I am stunned by the treasures this beautifully shot film has to offer. Trenque Lauquen is in my top 10 greatest films of all time.”