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The premise of Argentina’s Ricardo Darin’s latest feature, “Therapy Done Right” (Lo dejamos acá”), world premiering at the San Sebastian Festival, is deceptively simple: A pragmatic psychoanalyst loses faith in conventional methods and starts pushing the boundaries with his patients. Everything seems to be going well until a writer (played by Diego Peretti), struggling with creative block, walks into his office.
The dark comedy, which Darin’s Kenya Films produced, is having a special screening at the fest before it streams worldwide Oct. 16 on Netflix. He tapped Hernán Goldfrid, who directed him on “Thesis on a Homicide,” to helm the feature.
Darin and Goldfrid spoke to Variety at the tony Maria Cristina Hotel in San Sebastián:
Ricardo, you play the psychoanalyst who rejects an award at the onset, stating that Argentina has the largest number of psychoanalysts in the world and yet the percentage of Argentineans with some form of mental health issue has doubled. Is this a fact?
Yes, and I think it has something to do with the mix of cultures that shaped Argentina – Italians, Spaniards, Jews, Arabs, Germans… – really, a bit of everything. And I think that’s part of where it comes from. Argentina also embraced psychoanalysis a long time ago, and it’s worked for us. In many ways, it’s worked really well.
Everyone has mental health issues. A lot of people around the world do – they just don’t realize it. They think there’s something else causing it. I think it’s worth clarifying that, because otherwise it might give the impression that Argentinians are the only ones with mental health problems. That’s not the case.
But I also know there are more psychoanalysts in Argentina. There are a lot of psychoanalysts compared to other countries. Why is that? Nobody really knows. Because people have been drawn to studying it at university. Argentina has some very good universities for psychology and sociology.
Hernán Goldfrid: I think it has a lot to do with what Ricardo was just saying. I really like the idea of laughing at ourselves while also taking a moment to reflect. I think that’s part of why Argentina, and Buenos Aires in particular, has such a high number of psychoanalysts. We have this tendency to dwell on our own neuroses, to reflect, to listen to our own inner voice – to really look at what’s going on inside us. The film taps into that and I think that’s exactly why it made us laugh. Because at the end of the day, it felt very human.
Darín: We like to laugh at ourselves – it’s good for us. It’s a kind of balm. Yes, it’s healthy. And what about psychoanalysis? That doesn’t necessarily make us laugh, but the first step is to put into words what we think is happening to us and then compare that with what’s actually happening. And those two things can be very different.
How did this project come to you and your company, Ricardo?
“We received an early version of the story – a rough outline, a treatment-from our screenwriter, Emmanuel Díez, and it immediately caught our attention. At times, it made us laugh. It also gave us a chance to laugh at ourselves a little and reflect. So, we immediately brought Hernán on board to hear what he thought and see if he liked the idea. He did and he joined the writing process, as he likes to call it, and the three of us started having fun with the idea and shaping it together. But ultimately, he was the one who really gave it its final form, because he’s the director.
What were you hoping to achieve with this film?
Hernán Goldfrid: I think what we were really looking for was disruption. We talked about it at one point – the idea of being disruptive, unpredictable. We wanted the story to constantly put you up against the unexpected.
Darín: And we take that to the extreme, because that’s what my character does – he takes everything to the extreme. And at that point, it becomes crazy, completely outrageous. He even goes into people’s homes.
Goldfrid: It comes from this need our character has, a very pragmatic need to do something. Our character says, “You have to get your hands dirty.” And that’s really what drives him: getting directly involved in each of his patients’ emotional struggles, taking a completely hands-on approach.
You had previously worked together on “Thesis on a Homicide” so did you develop a kind a shorthand to collaborate on this film?
Darín: Yes, we already knew each other and we got along really well even back then. We had a great time. Hernán is very open and receptive. He really knows how to listen. He creates this back-and-forth dialogue, and that’s very encouraging for actors because he’s open to your ideas and gives you room to bring your own ideas into the process.
And what were some of the challenges you faced during the shoot?
Goldfrid: Every day on a film set is a challenge. Every situation is a challenge, because you’re suddenly confronted with everything you’ve been imagining and working toward for so long and now you have to make it real. There were definitely moments when we had to say, “Okay, now we’re standing on the edge of a cliff. What do we do?”
But more than anything, we enjoyed it. I always say that filmmaking is a collective effort. It’s a team effort, and everyone brings their own knowledge and experience to the table. So throughout the process, we tried to make the most of what each person had to offer, so we could overcome those difficulties and challenges together – and, above all, enjoy the experience.
We shot the film last year, and filming in Buenos Aires was also about making the city feel like another character in the story. The city runs through the film, and through the characters, and that was very important to us.
And I imagine you also spoke with psychoanalysts and other professionals while developing the project?
Darín: Yes, especially our screenwriter, Emmanuel. He spoke with several of them, and I think he still does.
Goldfrid: You do a lot of research but the film is really about people. So the research was also about that – about human vulnerability. In that sense, it became much more personal. It was about getting into the emotional world of each of us. We did have some great conversations with professionals, but what we really wanted to explore was people. So part of the research was simply observing what happens to each of us when we’re faced with situations like the ones in the film.
Darín: Hernán and I talked a lot. We laughed a lot, too. At first, we spent a lot of time laughing about the character, his extreme situations and the way he thinks. And little by little, the character started to take shape. Hernán was the one who kept everything in check and decided where to push it further and where to hold back, because it’s very easy to go too far.
What’s next for you, Ricardo?
Darin: I’m doing a play right now. It’s Bergman’s ‘Scenes from a Marriage,’ based on his famous film. I’m wrapping up the run in Madrid this coming Sunday, then I’m heading back to Argentina to take it on a short theater tour. And then next year I’ll be working on Season 2 of ‘The Eternaut‘ for most of the year. It’s going to be complicated, I don’t know if it’ll be even crazier, but it probably will be. No snow this time, but definitely crazier.
And how do you feel about the current situation in Argentina with all the cuts to subsidies in the audiovisual sector?
Darin: I think we’re at a bit of a turning point, a kind of pause, where we have to see how things settle. With an election year coming up, I imagine the Milei administration will highlight what it sees as its successes, while the opposition will emphasize what it sees as the government’s shortcomings. And we’re somewhere in the middle, trying to figure out what’s true and what isn’t.
These days, it’s hard to know what’s true just by following the news—to tell the difference between the truth and a manipulated version of it. And that doesn’t just happen in Argentina; it happens all over the world.
There have been a lot of cuts, not just to culture, but also in other very sensitive areas, such as disability services. There’s also a lot of discussion around a bill concerning disability rights and services currently being debated in Congress.
Argentina is a country that’s used to crises. We’ve had a lot of practice surviving crises. So, nothing really scares us anymore. Somehow, we always survive and manage to move forward. Like in that movie ‘The Party’ with Peter Sellers. He’s playing the bugle and people are shooting at him, but he just never dies. Well, that’s us. We’re Peter Sellers.
English (US) ·