Dancing Affect in the Aftermath of Loss: El loro y el cisne and Argentina’s Generation “In Between”

Abstract

Alejo Moguillansky’s third film, El loro y el cisne (2013), mischievously articulates the dancing landscapes of an outlandish Argentina through an unusual love story with autobiographical components. The film seems to elude a conventional analysis. It could be read as an improbable southern remake of Swan Lake, drawing upon the rehearsals of Grupo Krapp, an Argentine experimental, independent dance company. Alternately, El loro can be viewed as a quirky rom-com in which the director surreptitiously forms part of the romance while the characters flirt constantly at both sides of the camera. The film could also pass as a contorted musical or as a memoir of first-time fatherhood. El loro is most likely all of the above, and more.