Rest In Peace (Descansar en paz) is an Argentinian thriller drama film based on the novel of the same name by Martin Baintrub. Produced by Kenya Films, it is directed by Sebastián Borensztein and the screenplay is co-written by Marcos Osorio Vidal. The film has a runtime of about 1 hour and 47 minutes.
In Rest In Peace, a man, burdened by debt, chooses to vanish from his life. But can one truly forget their past and start anew without ever looking back? After many years, he is presented with an opportunity to find out what his family’s life is like, but it turns out to be nothing like he expected.
The cast of the film includes Joaquín Furriel as Sergio Dayan, Griselda Siciliani as Estela Dayan, Gabriel Goity as Hugo Brenner, Lali González, Raúl Daumas, Alicia Guerra and others.
Rest In Peace Review
While reading the synopsis of the film, one would imagine that it would be a suspense thriller where a man hatches an extraordinary plan to execute his fake death and escape from his debt-ridden life. And things get horribly wrong after a few years, when he is accidentally found by some acquaintance or tries to check-up on his family etc. However, the plot was not something that one would have expected. It opens up in 1994, in Buenos Aires, where Sergio is seen buying some jewellery but his card is declined. He pays by cash and the scene cuts to his daughter’s 13 birthday party.
It looks like Sergio has everything in his life, great family, friends etc but he has some serious worries, eating him alive. It soon is revealed to be a big financial debt that has emptied out his bank accounts and made him a target of the loan shark, Hugo Brenner, wanting his money back. He doesn’t even have money to pay the school fees or his employees, yet to maintain a stable farce, he can organise a big party for his child’s birthday. Sergio does his best to conjure as much money as he can, to pay Brenner, be it selling his countryside property etc. But when he accidentally finds himself injured amidst a bomb blast incident in the city, a new idea lights up in his mind.
Instead of going back to his family, he takes advantage of the situation and moves to Paraguay secretly. This way, at least his family could claim the insurance money to pay the debts. Meanwhile, his wife and kids believe that he died in the blast and have to deal with the pain of losing a loved one and the grave situation that he left behind. With a new identity in a new place, Sergio spends 22 years, living the same monotonous life as a local worker. But a chance encounter with an acquaintance sends him reeling back to check on the family that he left behind.
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The premise of a man leaving his family behind for any certain reason is quite a realistic scenario. We often hear or read internet stories about people leaving their loving families, to create another family perhaps or just being done with their mundane lives. It often leaves the family left behind thinking if their loved one wonder about them sometimes or not. Even if they do, what would they expect their previous family to be like? Would they be glad to see them thriving without them or would expect some ounce of pain, wanting the one that went away to come back?
Considering Sergio’s situation and being chased by a dangerous loan shark, one could assume that after all these years, Sergio would reap the dangerous consequences of his deceit and probably have an emotional reunion with his family. But nothing of that sort happens. We can even call it anti-climactic, the way the plot resolves in the end. Making you think, how in the world it can happen. And to give you a spoiler, the title of the film is a great hint.
While the plot of Rest In Peace felt a bit lacking and incomplete. It might have added more complexity if there was a certain reason behind Sergio’s debt and some elements of a crime thriller with – Sergio and Hugo Brenner clashing. But what makes up for that is the impressive performances by the actors, especially, Joaquín Furriel. If you have watched Argentinian content on Netflix then you might already be familiar with his face and work. The way he portrays the killing pain of desperation, like a time bomb ticking in his head is compelling to watch. Then he later transforms the desperation into longing pain.
What adds to his emotions is the screen framing and using elements to portray his psychological situation. In the initial scenes, a mirror/window reflection is used in the frames, showing that Sergio is deeply reflecting on his life and actions. Soon after, at his daughter’s birthday party, while clicking pictures with his family, the framing is such that it looks similar to a mourning with all the candles illuminating around his face. You can see the framing in the picture at the start, it visually expresses how Sergio is even contemplating his own death, if it means that his problems will be solved.
Similarly, when he meets his acquaintance accidentally in the market, his emotions overwhelm him, reeling him back to wanting to see his family. But if you take a look around his surroundings, all you can see is animals in cages. One could interpret it as Sergio feeling trapped, living the same life every day, not being able to go back or do things he would like. Overall, Rest In Peace has an intriguing story which could have been elevated further but other elements like the performances, visual style and framing somewhat make up for it.
Rating: 3.5/5
Rest In Peace is available for streaming on Netflix.
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