It's Your Fault

The Films from the South audience might recognize lead actress Erica Rivas from the comedy Wild Tales (FFS 2014), where she plays a bride hell-bent for revenge after having discovered that her husband-to-be has cheated on her. In It's Your Fault she does another impressive performance as Julieta, a newly divorced single mother who is suspected of maltreating her own son.

We first encouter her at home, as her two sons, eight-year old Valentin (eight) and two year-old Teo play wildly together, even though it is way past their bedtime. A night like any other, one might guess, only that is is her ex-husband Guillermo's turn to take care of the kids, and Julieta desperately needs to finish some work on her computer. As the kid's get wilder and wilder, Julieta's stressfulness increases, until Teo suddenly falls down from her bed and hurts his arm. In the hospital, the doctor's confirm that his lower arm is broken, but they also notice bruises on other parts of his body. When Julieta fails to account for why the bruises are their, the situation for her and for the kids gets more serious and complicated.

It's Your Fault takes place in the course of one night, and is a tense and intense drama about guilt, responsibility, and communication. It will certainly give food for thought, as it throws its own central question back at the audience: who are we to judge how other people raise their own children? Anahí Berneri's intelligent script and Erica Riva's restrained acting gradually change our perception of Julieta, from stressed-out and humiliated mother to a far more complex and morally ambiguous character. Cato Fossum

Anahí Berneri (b. 1975) is an Argentinian filmmaker. She graduated from the National Audiovisual Institute in Paris and debuted with a short documentary Modelo para armar (1997). Her five features have reaped numerous awards on the festival circuit. She teaches at Argentine’s national film school in Buenos Aires and also works as a theatre director.