Brother and Sister

Marcos and Susana's relationship in BROTHER AND SISTER isn't as co-dependent as the one in “Oedipus Rex,” but it's nasty just the same. They're a brother and sister in their 60s, as different as chalk and cheese. She's brassy and bewigged, a manipulative creature in thick make-up and sunglasses, who parades around Buenos Aires like she owns it. She steals her neighbor's mail, then attends the parties he's been invited to. She shows up late everywhere, then makes a splashy entrance. Susana models herself on the personality Mirtha Legrand, an aging beauty who lunches with stars on her TV show. Meanwhile, Susana's brother Marcos serves as her doormat. He's a patient man who has denied himself pleasure his entire life in order to care for their aged Mama. When Mama dies, Susana sells the family apartment and puts Marcos on the boat to the backwaters of Uruguay, across the river. Quietly irritated at first, Marcos grows to enjoy the freedom of his new environment. He even starts acting in an avant-garde theater production of “Oedipus Rex.” Now that they're no longer joined at the hip, it looks like a new day is dawning for both Marcos and Susana. (In Spanish with subtitles) – B.B.