Sidewalls

Gustavo Taretto's Sidewalls (Spanish: Medianeras) developed across nearly a decade. Taretto first made the material as a short film of the same name in 2005, which won prizes at over forty festivals worldwide; the feature-length version premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama section in 2011 and went on to a long international circuit including Sundance, Karlovy Vary and São Paulo.

The cast is led by Pilar López de Ayala — the Spanish actress best known for Manoel de Oliveira's The Strange Case of Angelica — and Argentine actor Javier Drolas, with Inés Efron and Rafael Ferro in supporting roles. The cinematography is by Leandro Martínez and the editing by Pablo Mari, both regular collaborators of Taretto's. The score is by Gabriel Chwojnik and uses Erik Satie's Gnossienne No. 1 as a recurring motif.

The film's central interest — the visual chaos of a Buenos Aires built up of medianeras, the bare side walls of buildings facing alleys — became its own discussed object in Argentine architectural and urban-studies writing through the 2010s. Buenos Aires city planning authorities subsequently included the film in cultural-heritage discussions of the city's residential streetscape. As a debut feature it remains the film Taretto is most identified with; he has worked principally in television since.