Alfredo José Dillon
The social crisis that broke out in December 2001 in Argentina marks a milestone in the reconfiguration of urban representations, especially of Buenos Aires and its periphery. This article examines urban transformations in four films by two relevant directors of contemporary Argentine cinema: Pablo Trapero and Marcelo Piñeyro. The poetics of both authors are defined by the fragmentation of urban space and the establishment of new territorial and social borders. On one side of those borders, Trapero’s films portray helpless characters; on the other side, Piñeyro’s films depict the withdrawal of the winners of the neoliberal economic model.