Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 8 Mar

Pablo Trapero / Argentina/Chile/France/South Korea / 2010 / 107 mins

It’s troubling that routine corruption reported by the media has led to tolerance replacing repugnance in our largely desensitised society. With redemption often sought after exploitation, Pablo Trapero explores how the journey between the two is governed by perspective. Argentinian traffic-accident claims lawyer Sosa (Ricardo Darín) preys on the weak and desperate, only paying out small percentages of the awarded compensation. But despite his extortionate income, something’s eating away at him. After meeting paramedic Luján (Martina Gusman), his conscience fully engages, upsetting a carefully orchestrated, legal but dishonest, operation.

Roaming camera angles and staccato shots mimic not just the devastation seen on the roads but also the protagonists’ turbulent personal lives. The frenzy experienced in both careers is starkly juxtaposed against scenes of individual desperation and ultimately, despite the social contact in their professions, their inescapable loneliness. The toil for companionship (both moral and immoral) represents the struggle millions face in achieving a “normal” life, captured in the brutal closing sequence. The gore of the injuries witnessed is surpassed in violence by the attitudes of greed and voracity by the insurance brokers, a comment on the deplorability of an economic system founded on avarice. The most grotesque theme however is the complete disregard of compassion expressed by the characters fighting for the chance to swindle the bereaved and wounded.