Absent

I have just finished watching Marco Berger's "Ausente", and in spite of the Teddy award it won at the Berlin International Film Festival as Best Film with LGBT topic, I confess that all the enthusiasm that I felt when I saw "Plan B" vanished. All the freshness and sensuality of Berger's first motion picture, with actors who seemed to be improvising scenes and lines (or maybe they were really doing it) to give us a sincere reflection on how to reach honest acceptance of our homo-erotic feelings, was here replaced by a flow of contrived, too coldly calculated movements, to create a melodrama (not in the best tango tradition, but more in a soapy middle class mold) which is often more corny than moving. The story of a professor's harassment by his adolescent student, who is trying to seduce his teacher with lies, is slowly displaced by a subplot that pays too much attention to public opinion, prejudice, fear and slander, that is probably more in the mind of the instructor, who in the end is not as transparent as he had thought. Although Berger still favors setting up his camera at the level of men's crotches in underwear while lying in bed, this time those shots seem tamed as he was too much assimilated (perhaps far too much) by the discreet charm of the Argentinean film industry and its frequent pomp (careful, I do not mean the other Argentinean cinema, so independent and liberating- and without Ricardo Darín in the leading role, of course!), with sugary music that even includes a little female voice doing "Aaahhh's" Both Carlos Echevarría as the professor and Javier de Pietro as the student are good, given the material they had to work with.

Hey, boys and girls! Your new word for the day is "auteur".

An auteur is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded and personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, thus manifesting the director's unique style or thematic focus.

You can look at a minute of film and know instantaneously if it was made by Alfred Hitchcock. Or Federico Fellini. Or Fritz Lang. Or Agnes Varda. Or Stanley Kubrick. Or Jean-Luc Godard (yowza!).

Marco Berger is an auteur. At the age of 47 (as of August 2025) he has written and directed nine feature films, collaborated on two more, and has just finished his 10th solo feature for release this year.

Yes: I own them all. My personal favourite (so far) is the gloriously lyrical "Hawaii", which may be the single most romantic film ever made.

He established his style and trademarks early on: he takes his time, but there is something to see in every shot no matter the duration; he concentrates on the relationship of two leading characters, or two at a time when there are many more; his screenplays are rich and hilarious when called for, or quiet (sometimes disturbingly so) and introspective, but he only lets you hear what is necessary to hear; he uses colours wisely; his use of music is superb (and has, to date, worked with the same composer on all of his films). He finds utter beauty in the most ordinary-looking men (yes, he is an openly queer director, and his sexual identity finds its way into most - but not all - of his films).

"Ausente", his second feature film, has taken quite a beating here. Why is that? Did you want to see Sebastián fall for Martín's advances? Did you not see or feel the tension between these two characters? Did you not feel Sebastián's grief, not only over Martín's fate but also over how he treated him?

So shut off your Smartphone, chill out, and screen it again and listen and watch closely: is the unexpected death an accident or suicide? And those last shots: fantasies? Memories?

I find it to be a film of almost overwhelming suspense, and, ultimately, profoundly moving.

P. S. It won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival.

1. Quiet: This is one of the quietest gay theme I've seen so far. Two lead actors, Carlos Echevarría and Javier De Pietro pretty well fit it. But, their feeling and character delivered well by good acting, cinematography, and of course music.

2. Love: Interesting that director and also writer (Marco Berger) share point of view about love between adult and teenager, son and father, underling and boss, employee and director, student and teacher. There is always a gap between that two degrees. Marco Berger choose to combine that two degrees by growing love between student and his sport teacher. I guess everyone ever had some crush to their teacher but the tricky point, not everyone, just a few who dared taking chances step the line and take actions to get to know their teacher in very close way. The extreme part, to make love with their teacher. There are differences between crush and love. But, what I see in this film more than just crush. I guess Martín already know his teacher Sebastián far from just become his sport teacher. That's why he was taking chances to get to know his teacher closely by lying.

3. The Truth: Being lying there are always consequences. The fact that Sebastián was straight and he sense something "wrong" with Martín, he made some wall to keep him stay away from Martín. The truth end up tragic. Sebastián loose control and beat Martín because he cannot accept that facts that Martín lying to him and abuse his trust and kindness. Martín fall apart but hold himself to keep it up and prevent Sebastián being fired from school.

4. Forgiveness: I think there is no connection between Martín accident to his "break up" with Sebastián. Just a big coincidence. A very big coincidence. Sometimes, accident happen, but death is always the worst part. Sebastián turn to fall apart. Martín absence was killing him form inside. He take some of it as his fault. He break school's swimming pool window and drinking. His mind trying to cope that situation by imaginary of Martín still alive. He was sorry and Martín just smile. It was enough for him.

Addition, I don't think that event turn Sebastián become gay. After all, he is trying not be ignorance man anymore.

Infatuation and lust may have bad consequences, particularly if involving an adult and a minor, and it certainly involves misapprehensions and rumors, particularly if involving teacher-student of the same sex. Thus, a good basis for an intriguing film for relatively wide audience? But, alas, the result is a protracted depiction of facial expressions and trivial dialogues, with the main topic in the background, and otherwise spirited Latin Americans behave as those from the Nordic countries... The plot remains indistinct; I usually like to ponder on and over during or after a film, but here, it was no mind-twisting at all. Leaving things open and not explaining things are two different approaches for me.

Ausente could be a play for small niche theatres, but a film for a big festival? I was surprised when I read that the film won "Best feature film" during Berlin International Film Festival.

And if you like hot guys and good drama you will too!