Night Watch, or Ronda Nocturna is a bleak Argentinean character study of a night in the life of a young male street hustler. No this is not a review of the Russian Horror Epic of the same name. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one. At the center of our story is Victor (Gonzalo Heredia) a young hustler living off the streets of Buenos Aires. When we first meet Victor, he's played with such confidence by Heredia, the audience is led to believe that the lifestyle he's chosen may not be so off-putting after all. That is until we're shown just a little bit more.

Victor scrapes by with some business from low-level cliental and the occasional drug sale. Beyond this, he offers his 'services' (for free) to a police detective for 'protection' - despite the fact that it's never really made known as to what this protection actually entails. Victor plays off as if he's fine with this arrangement, yet his inner pain is still quite visible. We follow along with Victor one evening, but this not just another ordinary night, it's All Souls Day - and this night is turning out to be anything but normal. Throughout the course of the evening, Victor is almost hit by a car, almost murdered by a male friend after sex and visited by a previous (seemingly forgotten female) love interest. What's actually happening here in Victor's reality versus what's really in Victor's mind is often left for audience debate, and it's this meandering consciousness that may be enough to turn impatient viewers off.

(Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Film Society)

While Night Watch is an interestingly constructed film, even at a light 80-minute running time, it seems a little long. The ending especially, which seems to go for a solid 20-minutes or so (Hardcore, another film screened at the fest had a similar issue). Night Watch provides us with a fantastic character study; disturbing, gritty and extremely realistic. Much of this success can be attributed to the performances (especially that of Gonzalo Heredia as Victor), which are rock solid. It's not for nothing, that Director Edgardo Cozarinsky shows us an ugly side of the world that we may never have been privy to witnessing otherwise.

At the forefront of Night Watch is Victor's mind (or at least what's left of it) and the viewer is left the task of much interpretation. Some of what we're given is quite easy to decipher while other information, not so much. In turn, the viewer is forced to face nearly as high level an inner struggle as Victor. In the end, I would classify Night Watch as good film, not great. But still, it's easily recommendable. It's difficult to digest but what would a great film festival be without those films that challenge and upset us? If I wanted excessive fluff, I would've headed to the multiplex.