How to Win Enemies

Take a classic antihero with all the wit and neuroses of Woody Allen, add the intrigue of an Alfred Hitchcock suspenser and a strong dose of Argentine sex appeal, and you have this comic, poignant, smart feature from Gabriel Lichtmann. The director of Jews in Space, Lichtmann shows the complicated family relations of Lucas, a young lawyer in Buenos Aires whose brother (and boss) Max is about to marry their gorgeous coworker Paulina in a traditional Jewish ceremony. In the midst of wedding preparations, Lucas is robbed of $50,000 in cash he had withdrawn as a down payment to buy a house. Lucas is a mystery buff; he has a dog named Sherlock. Convinced he has been conned, he draws up a list of suspects, including his best friend, played by Sagrado Sebakis, a kind of Argentine Seth Rogen, except funnier. At first, Lucas’s amateur detective work feels like the pitiable daydreams of an overgrown adolescent. Travel buffs will love how his adventures take him all over Buenos Aires. But as he unravels the mystery and finds the truth, he is confronted with difficult issues concerning family, betrayal and love. Lichtmann paces the movie exquisitely, letting the camera linger on the cafés and streetscapes of the city as well as on his matinee idol cast. [215] —Emily Kaiser Thelin

Gabriel Lichtmann was born on 1974 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied film directing in the Universidad del Cine in the same city, where he made several essay films, and from which he graduated in 1998. In 1996 he won an award by the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales which allowed him to make his short film "The Seventh Day," which will be premiered in theatres in October this year. He is nowadays writing the script and looking for finance for his first feature film, "Jews in Space," in which he will work with the same cast and crew that worked in "The Seventh Day". Filmography: - Random (010101); Video, 1996. - Lilith; 16mm, Black & White, 1997. - Yendo rápido a ningun lugar (Going nowhere fast); 16mm, Color, 1998. - El Séptimo Día (The Seventh Day); 35mm, Color, 1999.