Perpetual Motion

Gabino lives with his mother in Mexico City and makes a precarious living working as a mover with his friend Paco, ferrying other people’s possessions from one home to another. Between jobs, arguments over money and the lingering search for his missing dog, the pair remain constantly occupied while somehow getting nowhere.

Pereda turns this modest premise into a dryly funny study of labour, class and frustrated mobility, finding an absurd circularity in the routines of everyday life. Movement is everywhere – furniture changes hands, people come and go, stories are told and retold – yet meaningful change remains tantalisingly out of reach. Featuring Pereda regulars Gabino Rodríguez and Teresa Sánchez, Perpetual Motion brings into focus the repetitions, ambiguities and everyday rituals that would continue to reverberate throughout his cinema.

Perpetual Motion, dir. Nicolás Pereda, Canada / Mexico 2009, Spanish with English subtitles, 73 min.