La Encrucijada
2014 · 14m
Directed by Álvaro Prieto Mazaira
Genres: dark comedy, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, mythic
Jobless Mario dreams of rock stardom despite having no talent for music, and the Devil becomes his only friend and last chance to change his destiny.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A jobless dreamer befriending the Devil to chase a doomed rock career is exactly the kind of premise that makes you lean back and say 'okay, I'm listening'—it's got the teeth to actually interrogate delusion and desperation instead of romanticizing either one.
Mazaira positions this modern Faustian bargain within a lineage of mythic comedie noire, and the film's formal restraint—how it lets silence and stillness do the heavy lifting between punchlines—shows a director aware of what this tradition demands.
The decision to keep the Devil not as spectral seducer but as Mario's actual only friend reframes the entire film's emotional weight: it's not about temptation, it's about loneliness, and that single relational choice transforms what could've been a gimmick into something genuinely haunting.