In this instance, slightly more. Let's say 5%.

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 51 Films of 2021

#8 : Azor

Unnervingly subtle drama from Andreas Fontana, about a Swiss private banker visiting clients in Argentina during the period of the military junta and “disappearances”

This is the highest film on the list that I'd never heard of before so I'm intrigued about it - and doubly intrigued as to what "unnervingly subtle" involves.

So we meet Yvan and his wife Inés who are in Argentina because his "partner" (the mysterious Keys) has disappeared under uncertain circumstances.  So Yves needs to pick up and reassure his clients (who are, undoubtedly, an extremely dodgy bunch) whilst at the same time trying to understand what happened to Keys.  And also navigate the dubious political climate of the times.

And that's pretty much all I can say, I think - it's quite a mysterious journey which manages to keep you intrigued and, whilst it didn't quite end up where I was expecting, it did make some kind of sense.  It reminded me of "The Secret In Their Eyes" - another Argentinian film which doesn't go out of its way to overly explain matters but slowly draws you in.

The acting is generally low key but that's what's required - Fabrizio Rongione (who, obviously, is Belgian) does a good job as Yves and Stephanie Cléau backs him up well as Inés.  The rest of the cast do a perfectly acceptable job but I'm also going to call out Pablo Torre Nilson for his small role as a fantastically creepy priest.

The film has interesting use of dialogue - there's liberal use of both French and Spanish throughout the film and the director also often chooses to run a couple of conversations at the same time, which felt very confusing even with subtitles.  It also has an interesting habit of describing the various clients in code ("can't you see he's a deusse?") which may or may not make any sense if you speak the language - but I suspect not.

The film has a nicely retro feel to it (it's set in 1980) with some interesting shots used - although I'd say they're more unusual than technically exceptional.  There's some beautiful scenery in the film as well - I've always (for no obvious reason) fancied going to Argentina and this film did nothing to dissuade me.  

Overall, I'd say this is an interesting rather than great film - it managed to hold my attention and left me happy with the conclusion whilst still thinking more about things, but I can't say I'll be revisiting it.  It's not a technically brilliant film, but it doesn't set out to be either - it's quite low-key, but that is part of the overall design of the film.  So, would I recommend it to you?  Hmmm - I think that depends entirely upon you - if you like a foreign language film based upon political/social intrigue in a military dictatorship, then this will be right up your street.  But, for some reason, I'm not entirely convinced that applies to too many of you...

#9 - A well-loved film.  By others
#7 - I don't really see the point to this