The Headless Woman

(La mujer sin cabeza, Lucrecia Martel, Argentina 2008, 87 min., 35mm, Spanish w/subtitles)

Lucrecia Martel. Lucrecia Martel continues her meditation on class, family, secrecy, and guilt in her third film and final installment in her Salta trilogy, set in northwestern Argentina. Verónica (María Onetto) is an elegant, middle-aged woman driving home from a family party. Looking down for a moment to find her ringing cell phone, she hits something with her car. She brakes quickly, appearing to hit her head and suffer whiplash. Some children and a dog had been playing near a canal alongside the road, but Verónica drives onward after a silent pause. The mystery of the possible hit-and-run plays at the periphery of the film as the cinematography reveals physical, social, and psychological decay surrounding the dazed protagonist. Infidelity, cover-ups, and hushed questionings of memory and guilt serve as a veiled parallel to Argentina’s history of repressive dictatorship and disappeared people.