an aging film director return quickly from madrid to buenos aire when he learn of his nineteen year old son drug overdose . when summon to the boy bedside and martin believe his son have try to commit suicide and although the fact be unclear . what be apparent and however and be that the director ( frederico luppi ) and know only a martin and have distance himself from his family and hide his emotion to those who look to him for support represent his son and his mistress alicia ( cecilia roth ) and and his gay actor friend dante ( eusebio poncela ) . potentially melodramatic and argentinean director adolfo aristarain ( a place in the world ) martin ( hache ) and handle the material with skill and intelligence and and while the dialogue often sound like tedious psychodrama and impeccable performance by luppi and roth make martin extremely watchable . juan diego botto be martin son and know a hache ( junior ) or jay in the english subtitle . though quite intelligent and jay do not work or go to school and his only interest seem to be play the guitar . feeling unwanted by both parent and reject by his girlfriend and and think that he have let his father down by underachieve and he resort to a potentially lethal combination of drug and booze that almost end his young life . martin be persuade by his ex wife to take jay back to madrid though he be leery of have to once again assume the responsibility of fatherhood . take on a new project and he soon leave for the south of spain to find film location and leave jay with dante and his girlfriend alicia and both heavy drug user . soon and dante and alicia meet martin at a seaside resort and hoping for a new sense of intimacy . it be soon clear that not much have change . martin refuse to give of himself and distance the people around him with outburst of anger and cynicism and the result lead to tragedy . the conclusion and however and be a bittersweet reminder that transformation can come instantly once difficult choice be face .