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Argentinean Pablo Trapero is fast building a reputation as a director fascinated by the way extreme states of mind manifest themselves in ordinary lives. Now comes his fourth movie, Born And Bred, about affluent Buenos Aires interior designer Santiago (Guillermo Pfening), whose life with wife Milli (Martina Gusman) and daughter is shattered by a car crash. Santiago heads for a new life, on the desolate ice of Patagonia. This is a searing, wonderfully shot, and artfully understated examination of guilt and grief.

We join Santiago at his expensive apartment in Buenos Aires, where he shares an apparently idyllic life with Milli and their young daughter Josefina (Victoria Vescio). Soon, though, this comfortable domesticity is suddenly whisked away. On holiday, the family are in a terrible car crash; we are not shown the results, but instead fast forward to the far south of Argentina, where Santiago works at the tiny airport - one short gravel runway - and lives in a run down shack with co-worker Robert (Frederico Esquerro). A grinding work routine, and the brutally sparse landscape, are the whole of his existence.

"DEEP AND VISCERAL EMOTION"

The story - loss of loved ones - is hardly new, but Born And Bred finds deep and visceral emotion in it. Trapero shoots the vast, frozen plains of Pantagonia beautifully, and they become a metaphor for Santiago's spiritual emptiness. There's a great performance by Pfening, who convincingly transforms himself from spoiled interior designer to broken loner. Soon - via mysterious telephone calls - Santiago's life in Buenos Aires seems to be catching up with him. And Trapero manages a genuine surprise at the end; this is a deft, moving, intelligent film.

Born And Bred is out in the UK on 24th August 2007.