Venice 2024: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart’s Argentinian Film ‘Kill the Jockey’
by Alex Billington
August 30, 2024
One of my top discoveries from the first half of the 2024 Venice Film Festival is an Argentinian film called Kill the Jockey, originally known as El Jockey in Spanish. It’s the latest cinematic creation from artsy, talented Argentinian filmmaker Luis Ortega, already known for his other films Damn Summer, Lulu, and El Angel previously. The film is premiering in the Main Competition at Venice – within the first 15 minutes after the screening began, I knew why they picked this film to play in this prestigious section at the festival. It really is a fantastic film, with complex filmmaking, slick storytelling and vivid pacing, and a very precise, clean style. It’s also an impressive 97 minutes (which in Venice is refreshing because almost everything else is 2 to 3 hours long), never overstaying its welcome and moving along at such a swift pace it almost feels like they’re leaving out major moments of this story. But that’s actually part of what makes it potent – the taut, minimalistic narrative keeps it fascinating, you really have to keep up to understand where it’s going & what the story is saying following this jockey as he attempts to escape from his horse racing lifestyle in Argentina.
From a screenplay written by Fabian Casas, Luis Ortega, & Rodolfo Palacios, Kill the Jockey follows a horse racing jockey named Remo – starring the superbly talented Nahuel Pérez Biscayart in this dynamic lead role. Within the horse racing world, Remo works for gangsters and a very wealthy crime family; he’s pretty much owned by them like they own their horses. But he’s tired of that life, so one day in the middle of race he takes too many drugs and goes for a ride over the fence. This begins his life anew, or at least that’s what he is hoping – he escapes from the hospital and begins to wander around the city with a giant bandage on his head. As he attempts to create a new identity, seemingly without any goal at first (aside from not being recognized by his former “family”), it’s clear he wants to become a new person entirely. This leads him down the path of transitioning to a woman, as strangers around him start to call him “ma’am” which makes him forget about anything except continuing on. There is plenty to discuss and debate about the third act, and how this is another story about finding freedom by expressing your identity honestly, even by changing your sex. Though it’s much more about what freedom really means and how hard it is truly find and hold onto it.
Following in the footsteps of other terrific modern Argentinian films like Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents (my review), this film also comes back to a resounding theme of Argentinian storytelling – no one can escape the grip that money has on all of us. There is no way to truly free yourself from the control that money has on every aspect of society. You may find freedom in expressing your true identity, whatever it may be, but at what cost? What does it take to be free in every sense? Is there any true freedom to obtain or will money always find its way back to holding us down? As with The Delinquents, Kill the Jockey reminds every single viewer that we’re all trapped in this circle of financial oppression. But at least there’s some possible freedom to be found in other experiences of life. One of the best parts of this festival discovery is all of the classic Argentinian songs used throughout – from musicians like Nino Bravo, Leo Dan, Sandro, and Palito Ortega. Along with a few breakout dance scenes that made me want to breakout into applause. I had to make a list of every last song heard in this film so I can listen to them all over again. Masterful filmmaking means crafting a film that makes you want to dive fully into every aspect of the filmmaking – and this one is a real winner.
Alex’s Venice 2024 Rating: 9 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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