La hora de la siesta
2014 · 14m · Argentina
Directed by Candelaria Pantaleón
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, mystery
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
Alma escapes from her house at siesta time to play and explore in the surroundings of the village; one day she finds an old Australian tank and nothing will ever be the same again.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The Australian tank buried in an Argentine village is such a WTF detail that it should feel like conceptual vandalism, but Pantaleón treats it with genuine reverence—which is exactly the kind of tonal perversity most scouts would botch.
A precise formal exercise in the European coming-of-age tradition, where landscape and object carry the weight of narrative; the film knows exactly what it owes to Vigo and Kiarostami, and executes with measured restraint.
The decision to keep the tank silent—to let Alma's discovery unfold without score or explanation—transforms what could be quirky indie whimsy into something archaeological and genuinely unsettling; that single absence does all the work.