Bad Day to Go Fishing

Jacob van Oppen, once the strongest man in the world, has aged and is far from his old strength. His manager Orsini, who calls himself the Prince, tours him round the small towns of South America putting on wrestling exhibitions; the heart of the business is arranging in advance who will step up against him. When they arrive in Santa María the town greets them with unexpected enthusiasm, and the thing starts getting out of hand. Álvaro Brechner's first feature was adapted from the story Jacob y el otro by the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti. The telling starts like a story about a swindle and turns into one about the bond between two men. Jouko Ahola plays Jacob and Gary Piquer plays Orsini. It screened in Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Onetti's invented town of Santa María is the film's ground.