Túneles en el río
2009 · 22m · Argentina
Directed by Igor Galuk
Genres: horror, mystery, thriller
Riverside lore says that every summer more than a hundred people disappear in Rio de la Plata waters, swallowed and never returned. Juan and two sons go fishing on the Punta Piedras coast.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's basically a fishing trip that goes sideways, which sounds like every dad-and-sons thriller, but the film keeps its cards close—the folk horror sits underneath like a current you feel more than see, and that restraint is its own kind of provocation.
Galuk constructs a classical three-act tension in 22 minutes with the precision of someone who understands how myth functions in landscape; the Rio de la Plata becomes a character through accumulated ritual detail and framing choice, situating this firmly in the lineage of South American gothic.
The film's singular lever is how it uses silence and the sound design of water—the editing lets long stretches breathe without music, which forces you into the family's proximity and makes the river's presence almost unbearable, a technical choice that transforms a simple premise into genuine dread.