Kékszakállú is an unconventional portrayal of several young women witnessed in immersive yet indeterminate states: within their bodies, among their friends and lovers, and ultimately in a culture of economic and spiritual recession. The torpor of boredom and privilege is undercut by the vicissitudes of Argentina's economic malaise, forcing the offspring of a vanishing upper class to extricate themselves from the props of familial privilege. The film presents a documentary-like exposure of the quotidian while extending possibilities for redemption among this brood of the weary. Obliquely inspired by Bela Bartok's sole opera, Kékszakállú radically transposes the portent of Bluebeard's Castle into something far less recognizable: a tale of generational inertia, situated between the alternating and precisely rendered tableaux of work and repose in Buenos Aires and Punta del Este.
Two adolescent siblings travel home to an out-of-season seaside town in Argentina to fulfil the last wishes of their late mother: scatter her remains in the ocean. Unfortunately, the only 'remains' they have is her prosthetic hand. Thus this quirky drama mines surrealist, deadpan comedy from death and the absurdity of life.
For 17-year-old Lucas, the nearly deserted town is fertile ground for exploring his sexuality. Meanwhile 20-year-old Gilda, preoccupied with her 'bad energy', searches for meaning through therapies and divination methods. Bickering and trapped in limbo, they confront the empty space left by their mother's suicide and take important steps into adulthood, ultimately supporting each other through the challenging combination of mourning and adolescence.
Jimena travels to Río Grande, on the island of Tierra del Fuego in southernmost Argentina, to join her half-brother Mariano. She has almost no money to travel but manages to arrive there hoping to have a better life in that manufacturing region. The wind, the cold and the complex economic crisis form the background against in which Jimena will develop empathy for the people around her and a feeling of belonging there, but also a place where she will learn to know herself better.