A father’s choice turns tragic
This week, Netflix dropped the Argentinean-produced Rest in Peace (Descansar en Paz). Directed by Sebastian Bornesztein, the film follows a man who is on the verge of losing it all in terms of his financial well-being. The person he owes a debt to puts a deadly amount of pressure on him to pay him back. However, a tragedy happens outside of his dire circumstances that allows him to save his family, but at a major cost.
Rest in Peace is an adaptation of the novel of the same name. The story follows Sergio Dayan (Joaquin Furriel), a businessman plagued by the debt he has wracked up over the years. The film opens with a massive birthday party being thrown for his 13-year-old daughter. Family, dancing, drinking, and food—it felt like a reception at a wedding full of people who can’t wait to celebrate.
It’s Sergio’s last hurrah of fun, really. He is a business owner, and his staff is on the verge of a strike. He owes money to many other people, one of whom is businessman Hugo Brenner (Gabriel Goity). In a scene early on, Hugo asks for his money back, but Sergio does not have it. Hugo, in a very subtle way, threatens his family and even goes the extra mile to tell him he needs his hundreds of thousands by Monday.
Sergio gets a package one morning from a stranger with candid photos of his wife and kids leaving school, signifying that his family will be killed if the debt is not paid. However, a shift occurs that oddly saves the day. There is a true story that weaves its way into the narrative.
Rest In Peace begins in 1994, and Sergio encounters a bombing that actually took place in Argentina at the time. It was a car bomb attack that killed eighty-five people and wounded nearly two hundred at the Argentinian Jewish Mutual Aid Association. There are subtle acknowledgements of the Jewish-Argentinian culture within the country throughout the movie.
Sergio survives the attack with a few bombs and bruises but comes to the idea that if he vanishes, making his wife think he has died, they can take the life insurance money, get out of debt, and be better off without them. He flees Argentina for Paraguay under a new identity and starts a new life. He falls for another woman, befriends a dog, and gets a job, all while his family is in a neighboring country trying to move on with their lives.
The beginning of Rest in Peace sets up a brutal reality for those with crippling debt, especially those who seemed to get help from the wrong kind of people. The pressures of men providing for their families are prevalent in the themes, but after the inciting incident, which takes a bit too long to get to, some of the drama begins to settle down when, frankly, it should somewhat pick back up.
There are a lot of moments in the middle of Rest in Peace that happen on screen that feel like the film is trying to say, “Wait, you’re invested in this story, right?” In actuality, it’s hard to feel for Sergio while he is in Paraguay. His life shifts too quickly; there is no moment when he feels a lot of heartbreak. It feels like a stretched-out montage that, you know, is going to come to an end at some point. He is going to need to return to his family somehow, somehow, and that way is through the use of Facebook.
Yes, Facebook and social media come into play as a little over fifteen years pass within thirty minutes or so. Sergio, now with a beard and long hair, looks like a homeless man you avoid eye contact with on the street. Yet, he has a life for himself. He learns of Facebook and looks up his family, and it’s there that he decides to go back.
In the third act, things pick back up with a twist we now know was already discovered by Sergio. It all culminates at his daughter’s wedding; it’s shot eerily like the film’s opening scene. He finds a way into the wedding, but nobody knows him. He plans to be there to see her off, but then he has it in his head to go home and kill himself.
It’s impactful, but it all kind of happens way too fast for a film that clocks in at an hour and forty-seven minutes. The extremely dramatic beats are not too dramatic when they should be. What’s even more frustrating is how the film’s final moments unfold. We want there to be a more cathartic moment for Sergio, but it just cuts to black.
Read More: Rest In Peace Ending Explained
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10