Stars: Daniel Katz, Julieta Zylberberg

Argentinian writer-director Katz’s touching absurdist drama, with its short running time and languid pacing, may sound slight, but there’s enough going on her to fill three normal pictures.

In a series of short scenes, some set years and months apart, we observe Seba (played by the director’s brother Daniel Katz), a soft-spoken and accommodating thirtysomething illustrator, working his way through a variety of temporary menial jobs. His titular hound’s barking when he is at work has his neighbours complaining. Attending a wryly amusing HR meeting, he is told he is not able bring it into work, so he starts working outdoors as part of a food collective. Later, at this mother’s second wedding, Seba meets a woman (Zylberberg) with whom he has a child. The story leaps forward several years, and switches genre to sci-fi, where a massive global event has occurred, a spookily prescient one at that, depicted via one of Seba’s illustrations, which spells drastic changes for his family.

In its distinctive, slightly skew-whiff manner, the film examines the relationship of the people to the land, and shows how regular folks are impacted by, and how they negotiate social and political upheaval, with Seba a totem of quiet resilience. Rendered in handsome black and white, but with five different cinematographers, it retains a visual unity, while Daniel Katz’s Seba is an appealingly nurturing and humane protagonist.

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet is available to stream on Curzon Home Cinema from May 21st

David Willoughby

Follow David on @DWill_Crackfilm