Deseo oculto
2015 · 10m · Argentina
Directed by Nicolás Ratier
Genres: experimental, mystery, thriller
A man bent on revenge is left a mysterious box with a warning note: 'Do not open this box, it will be the end of your world', told from an experimental point of view.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A revenge thriller that refuses to deliver the revenge—instead it traps you in a box-shaped Pandora's problem and lets the anticipation become the actual story. This is exactly the kind of premise that makes people uncomfortable because it *works* by denying satisfaction, and most scouts would call it a gimmick.
Ratier locates himself in a deliberate lineage of constraint-based cinema, where formal rules (the box, the warning, the prohibition) generate philosophical weight rather than mere suspense. The experimental framing isn't decoration; it's the film's argument about desire and knowledge made visible.
The decision to never fully reveal what's in the box—to let the *camera itself* become anxious around it—is the move that elevates this from a clever premise into something that justifies its own existence on a thin budget and concentrated runtime.