Wild Tales (15)

Damián Szifron’s dark mind is on full display in a black-comedy masterclass quite unlike anything else over the past five years.

A satire of survival in a corrupt and cynical Argentina, each of the six short accounts on display here chronicle all walks of life; an enraged demolitions expert, a furious bride on her wedding day, a bout of in-flight paranoia. This is just a teaser of what to expect from a rabbit-hole of confusion and hilarity.

Frantic from the off, the pre-credits short sets the bench-mark so high that it takes almost an entire film to match it. The visuals are stunning, a real pleasure, and the bizarrely perfect soundtrack screams Spaghetti Western classic.

Ideally structured and often wickedly dark, Wild Tales, put simply, is an ingenious collection of nightmarish stories exploring the extremities of humans in distress. In Szifron’s mind, this world is going to hell. If everyone acted the way these characters behave, civilization certainly would crumble.

Barmy, brilliant and never banal, this twisted comedy is an absolute treat for the mind.