Rodrigo Moreno’s “The Delinquents” opens with the most low-key heist in movie history. Bank employee Morán (Daniel Elías) nonchalantly strolls out of work with about $650,000 of the bank’s cash, then asks his coworker Román (Esteban Bigliardi) to help hide the money.
Morán is willing to serve jail time so that he can enjoy the money when he gets out. “Three and a half years in jail,” he says, “or 25 years at the bank?”
After this beginning, and over its bold three-hour running time, the story morphs into a sly, humane, existential comedy about life, work and the use of one’s time. Director Moreno fills the film with clever winks, splits and dualities, including the use of one actor (Germán De Silva) playing both the role of the bank manager and a prison overlord.
“The Delinquents” is Argentina’s submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars. The nation has won the awards twice – for 1985’s “The Official Story” and 2009’s “The Secret in Their Eyes” – and was most recently nominated last year, for Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina 1985.”
The idea for this movie came to you after you had been offered to remake a 1940s crime drama?
Yes, “Hardly a Criminal” from 1949. It was directed by Hugo Fregonese, a great filmmaker who went to Hollywood after that film. “The Delinquents” is not a remake or an adaptation, but I just took the first sequence from that story, which gave me the beginning of a plot. I then took many detours.
In your film, the character of Morán steals money from the bank where he works and gives it to his coworker Román. Then Morán turns himself in to the police.
Yes. The main character in the 1949 film was also named Morán and his main goal was to be rich. So I changed his main goal. Instead of money, the goal in my film is time. He’s willing to serve a few years in jail to have that when he
gets out. Money is just the means to have free time. These are the really important existential questions: How do we not spend our whole life working and what does that mean?
Duality is a common theme in literature and movies — the idea of two halves, one echoing the other. Was this something that you wanted to explore?
Well, yes. The first difference I made from that original film was to divide the character into two different people: Morán and Román. I really enjoyed playing with that duality and the synchronicity within it. One character is following
in the footsteps of the other. I thought that was a great narrative device. That’s also why I split the film evenly into two halves.
And that’s why we see one actor (De Silva) playing two roles, as the bank boss and the kingpin of the prison. But I didn’t want it to be solemn or to feel like a heavy assault on the audience. That was something I particularly worried about. So there is more of an absurdist tone, which comes naturally to me when I’m making a film. I feel better in the realm of the absurd.
The film’s look feels more like a throwback to the 1970s or ’80s, even though it is set in the present day. Was it intentional to suggest an earlier era?
Absolutely intentional. There was a question of the aesthetics of modern banks, which I find, cinematographically speaking, horrible. But beyond that, I wanted to create the sense of a fable, so I had to detach the film from modern reality. The bank and the prison had this timeless vibe.
But at the same time, I was still shooting the streets as they look today. And that’s why you see some of the pedestrians in the streets wearing face masks. It was filmed during the pandemic.
Though the film makes no mention of COVID, it comments so powerfully on how it feels to watch years drift by.
In the film, there are two kids who are having music lessons with Román’s girlfriend. Those are actually my kids. They appear in two scenes, but the first
was shot in 2018 and the second in 2022. I thought it would be the best way to suggest the passage of time. It’s the Linklater effect on me.
The film took so long to make because of the lockdown. And thus, there’s something that was revealed to us about the passing of time. The film today has a different meaning and gets re-signified. We got to address issues there around the ideas of work and leisure and the best use of our time.
When the film was over, I said, “It really wouldn’t be so bad to steal some money, serve some time in prison, get released and then never have to work again.”
The film seems to inspire that feeling in some people. [Laughs] I can only say I’m sorry.
A version of this story first appeared in the International Feature Film issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
