Lisandro Alonso follows up last year's revelation at MIFF, Los Muertos, with a self-reflexive feature that is as intriguing as it is elusive.

In a complex and highly original play on fiction and reality, Alonso's lead actor from Los Muertos, Argentino Vargas, arrives at the sprawling San Martin Theater in Buenos Aires where he is attending a screening of the film. In his endeavours to locate the screening room, he gets lost and happens to bump into the star of Alonso's first feature, Misael Saavedra, who is also fumbling his way through the nooks and crannies of this labyrinthine venue. Interestingly, it is the cinema that acts as the main protagonist as opposed to the actors acting as themselves.

“Fantasma represents one of the most complex and sophisticated uses of sound in a movie I've heard in years. It is a city as perceived by unaccustomed country ears, full of car alarms, toilet flushes and airplanes passing by… Dialogue, however, is employed as sparingly as if Alonso had to pay a steep tax for each word.” - LA Weekly