El eslabón podrido (2015)

El Escondido is a small village in Argentina with just 20 houses. In the village, far from the nearest larger town, depravity prevails. Bestiality and incest are commonplace, and superstition rules the village. The only piece of technology is a radio. The prostitute Roberta lives in one of the houses with her intellectually disabled brother, Raoulo, and their sick mother. Her mother warns her not to sleep with just any man from the village, or she will bring great misfortune upon herself and the village. So Roberta turns away a client from the village. When her mother finally dies one day, she repeats her warning on her deathbed. But on her way back from the funeral, Roberta falls into the hands of the client she had spurned. He rapes her. Afterward, she takes refuge with her brother, who cares for her. After almost a month, during which Raoulo nurses her back to health, the two sleep together. Roberta is horrified shortly afterward: the man who raped her was not the last man from the village she slept with—it was her own brother. In her despair, she runs into the village and interrupts a gathering. A sign comes loose and kills her on the spot. Raoulo takes her body home. Then, in blind rage, he sets out and gruesomely kills everyone in the village. Last, he seeks out the village priest, Arón, who tells him that Roberta’s death was an accident. He should blame God or humanity. Raoulo then asks him if he is God, and the priest says no. The question “Are you a human being?” goes unanswered, because when the priest has no words left, Raoulo kills him last. Once he has finished, he takes the cart he used to deliver firewood to the village and leaves. On his way, he meets two young girls and asks them whether they are “human beings.” Then he kills them and continues on his way.