Rejtman’s legendary feature debut became an instant cult sensation, immediately recognized as an authentic, iconic harbinger of a new sensibility in Argentine and Latin American filmmaking. Rapado boldly announced Rejtman’s signature laconic style with its restrained camera work, zero-degree performance style, crisply distilled dialogue and careful structure of repetitions that both abstract and intensify the largely nocturnal world tightly contained within it. A close adaptation of the title entry from Rejtman’s eponymous collection of short stories, Rapado follows two, or perhaps three, days and late nights in the life of a young man still stuck at home with his parents and enervated by the pregnant decisions that seem to weigh down his every action. A droll and melancholy comedy of delayed reaction that captures the loneliness of the corner store and video arcade, and the even-then precarious state of the Argentine economy, Rapado’s poignant rendering of directionless youth merits comparison to the late, desolate masterworks of Aki Kaurismäki. 

The Harvard Film Archive will screen a beautiful 35mm print of Rapado from its collection, struck directly from the original camera negative in 2010.