Introduction: mise-en-scene, a seemingly international staging -- A neonoir skew to the action-image. A shimmering suture: Fabián Bielinsky's epileptic El aura -- Slippery criminal pleasures: intermediality and voyeurism in Jorge Furtado's O homem que copiava -- Endless quest: chasing sex, lies, and money at the gates of hell in Heitor Dhalia's O cheiro do ralo -- Road movies. The paradoxical effect of the documentary: Walter Salles's Central do Brasil -- Twin piques: the double discourse of Carlos Sorín's El camino de San Diego -- Orphans' solidarity: María Victoria Menis's El cielito -- Drama. Sculpting time: Inês de Oliveira Cézar's Como pasan las horas -- The past engulfs the present: Josue Mendez's Días de Santiago -- Experimental auteurism. Whether or not to end one's life: Carlos Reygadas's Japón -- Crime and self-inflicted punishment: Carlos Reygadas's Batalla en El cielo -- Experimental auteurism and intertextuality. The miracle of female bonding in patriarchal society: Carlos Reygadas's Stellet licht (2008) -- Cyclical scapegoating: Inês de Oliveira Cézar's Extranjera -- The irrevocable nature of curses: Inês de Oliveira Cézar's El recuento de Los Daños -- Splintered mirrors, echoes, and reverberations: Fernando Pérez Valdés's Madrigal -- Experimental pseudo-documentary. Room with a view: Fernando Pérez Valdés's Suite Habana -- Life is and is not: Paz Encina's Hamaca Paraguaya -- Conclusion: possible futures.