La primera semana de invierno
2019 · 22m · Perú
Directed by Abdías Estares
Genres: crime, mystery, thriller
Tones: contemplative, tense
A painter is hired by a blind man to produce seven portraits over the course of a week, while a journalist investigates a jewel thief who smuggles gems inside paintings — and all signs point to the blind man.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
The setup promises genre fireworks—blind man, paintings, jewel smuggling—but Estares seems more interested in the spaces *between* reveals than the heist machinery itself, which is either deliberately subversive or frustratingly patient depending on your tolerance for contemplation masquerading as mystery.
A formally composed interrogation of perception and artifice that inherits from the European art-thriller tradition while maintaining its own austere rhythm; the structural choice to unfold the crime through the painter's commission is bracingly elegant.
The single decision to shoot the painter's work *in progress*—letting us see the blind man's portrait emerge across the week rather than reveal it whole—transforms what could be a conventional whodunit into something quietly devastating about interpretation and trust.