{ "id": "ep988xa76s", "slug": "historias-extraordinarias", "title": "Historias Extraordinarias", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2006-2009", "label": "Released 2006 to 2009", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2006-2009" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Historias Extraordinarias (Extraordinary Stories) is a 2008 Argentine film by Mariano Llinás: 245 minutes, three never-crossing stories of men X, Z, and H, 18 chapters, BAFICI 2008 awards, El Pampero Cine, about 30,000-dollar budget.", "snippet": "Historias Extraordinarias (Extraordinary Stories) is a 2008 Argentine film by Mariano Llinás: 245 minutes, three never-crossing stories of men X, Z, and H, 18 chapters, BAFICI 2008 awards, El Pampero Cine, about 30,000-dollar budget.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2006-2009", "markdown": "# Historias Extraordinarias\n\n**Historias Extraordinarias** (Extraordinary Stories) is a 2008 Argentine fiction film written and directed by Mariano Llinás, running 245 minutes and telling three parallel stories about three ordinary men, identified only as X, Z, and H, whose lives are upended by chance events and who never meet each other.[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/historias-extraordinarias/) • [2](https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/romanistik/llin__s.pdf) Made independently by the collective El Pampero Cine on a budget of roughly 30,000 dollars, it premiered at the Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI) in April 2008, won Best Director and the Audience Award there, and became a landmark of independent Argentine cinema.[3](https://fipresci.org/report/extraordinary-stories-the-cinema-as-playground-by-diego-lerer/) • [4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Mariano Llinás, who also plays X[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/historias-extraordinarias/) • [5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias) |\n| Runtime and structure | 245 minutes, three acts of about 80 minutes each, 18 chapters, usually projected with two ten-minute intervals[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/historias-extraordinarias/) • [6](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf) |\n| Protagonists | X (Mariano Llinás), Z (Walter Jakob), and H (Agustín Mendilaharzu), three men whose stories never cross[6](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf) • [7](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/historias-extraordinarias) |\n| Production | El Pampero Cine with financing from I.Sat; budget about 30,000 dollars (another account gives about 35,000)[4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV) • [8](https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2023/11/pmcineteca.pdf) |\n| Premiere and awards | BAFICI, April 2008: Best Director and Audience Award; FIPRESCI prize at Cinélatino, Toulouse, 2009[3](https://fipresci.org/report/extraordinary-stories-the-cinema-as-playground-by-diego-lerer/) • [9](https://www.cinelatino.fr/film/historias-extraordinarias/) |\n| Argentine release | 4 October 2008[7](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/historias-extraordinarias) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Agustín Mendilaharzu; music Gabriel Chwojnik; editing Alejo Moguillansky and Agustín Rolandelli; production Laura Citarella[5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias) • [10](https://www.otroscines.com/post/critica-de-historias-extraordinarias-pelicula-de-mariano-llinas-reestreno) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### The three stories\n\nThe film alternates among three narratives, each driven by a fortuitous event that generates new stories. X, played by Llinás himself, witnesses a violent act and a murder, kills a man, and goes into hiding in a hotel in [Buenos Aires Province](https://www.edgepedia.org/buenos-aires-province), becoming an observer of the world around him.[5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias) • [6](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf) Z takes a job in a small rural town replacing a manager who has just died, and out of boredom begins obsessively investigating his predecessor's increasingly mysterious life, discovering a notebook written in code and a map.[5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias) • [4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV) H is hired for a mission he never fully understands: to sail down the Salado River in a small boat, photographing and investigating a series of mysterious monolithic stone structures along its banks, the remains of an abandoned water project.[5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias) • [4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV)\n\nThe three protagonists are deliberately treated as \"non-characters\", conductors of the narrative without psychologies or backgrounds, which is reinforced by the decision to name them only with single letters.[6](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf) The stories never intersect; their connection lies in the alternation and in the voice-over that binds them.[2](https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/romanistik/llin__s.pdf)\n\n## Structure and narration\n\nThe film is organized into three acts of approximately 80 minutes each, divided into 18 clearly numbered chapters, so the viewer always knows which story, and which part of it, is on screen.[6](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf) • [11](https://www.cinencuentro.com/2010/06/22/historias-extraordinarias-2008/) Llinás organized the intercalated stories the way a novelist would, and the film is generally described as novelistic rather than theatrical in its storytelling.[11](https://www.cinencuentro.com/2010/06/22/historias-extraordinarias-2008/) • [1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/historias-extraordinarias/)\n\nVoice-over carries the film. Three narrators, Daniel Hendler, Juan Minujín, and Verónica Llinás, read a text that describes what is not shown, comments on characters, makes marginal asides, and plays with the viewer; critics have called it among the best-written voice-over in Argentine cinema.[12](https://www.micropsiacine.com/2025/11/re-estrenos-critica-de-historias-extraordinarias-y-entrevista-a-mariano-llinas-malba/) The narration pushes the story forward continuously, replacing quiet observation with a torrent of ideas, anecdotes, and references.[5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias)\n\n## Literary and cinematic models\n\nLlinás has pointed not to the austere figures usually associated with the New Argentine Cinema, such as Bresson, Cassavetes, or Antonioni, but to Louis Feuillade's serials, [Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jorge-luis-borges), and [Laurence Sterne](https://www.edgepedia.org/laurence-sterne)'s *Tristram Shandy* as the film's models.[5](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias) Festival writing has compared the film, were it literature, to works by [Robert Louis Stevenson](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-louis-stevenson) and Borges.[13](https://www.fiff.ch/sites/default/files/inline-files/FIFF_2014_catalogue-web.pdf) The critic Roger Alan Koza also traces its procedures to *Tristram Shandy*, the adventures of Tintin, and Stevenson, set against the towns, municipal buildings, and Salado River landscapes of Buenos Aires Province, including the extravagant architecture of Francisco Salamone.[14](https://www.conlosojosabiertos.com/historias-extraordinarias/)\n\nFormally, the film mixes still photographs in the manner of [Chris Marker](https://www.edgepedia.org/chris-marker)'s *La jetée*, split screens, fixed shots, and unorthodox camera movements, and includes a passage playing on André Bazin's concept of \"forbidden montage\" in which Z shares a room with a lion.[14](https://www.conlosojosabiertos.com/historias-extraordinarias/) Its opening murder is narrated from a distance in a single fixed shot, a sequence critics have compared to the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers)' *No Country for Old Men*.[10](https://www.otroscines.com/post/critica-de-historias-extraordinarias-pelicula-de-mariano-llinas-reestreno)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film could not have been made without El Pampero Cine, the production company Llinás co-founded in 2002, whose stated principle is \"producing cinema without producers\": directors who fund and make films on their own terms, without financiers who can alter the script, and who premiere at BAFICI or alternative venues rather than commercial theaters.[8](https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2023/11/pmcineteca.pdf) The channel I.Sat financed the project.[4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV) Accounts of the total cost differ: the [Google Play](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-play) description gives 30,000 dollars, while a retrospective published by the Argentine government gives about 35,000 dollars for the 245-minute film, shot in natural locations.[4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV) • [8](https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2023/11/pmcineteca.pdf)\n\nIt was shot on video (MiniDV), and differentiated itself from other Argentine productions through a small crew and actors with little or no film experience, whose roles were often flexible or interchangeable.[3](https://fipresci.org/report/extraordinary-stories-the-cinema-as-playground-by-diego-lerer/) • [4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV) The crew became the core of El Pampero's later work: Mendilaharzu on cinematography, Citarella on production, Moguillansky on editing.[8](https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2023/11/pmcineteca.pdf)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nAt BAFICI 2008 the film won Best Director in the Argentine competition and the Audience Award, and it went on to festivals including Torino, Miami, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Nantes, and Vienna, where it had its European premiere at the Viennale; it was released in New York in 2011.[3](https://fipresci.org/report/extraordinary-stories-the-cinema-as-playground-by-diego-lerer/) • [6](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf) It received the FIPRESCI prize at the 21st Rencontres de Toulouse (Cinélatino) in 2009.[9](https://www.cinelatino.fr/film/historias-extraordinarias/) Despite its length, cheap video, and a director then known only to a small audience, it became a commercial hit in Argentina.[3](https://fipresci.org/report/extraordinary-stories-the-cinema-as-playground-by-diego-lerer/)\n\nCritics have treated the film as a turning point for independent Argentine cinema. It received no public funding and helped establish a new way of distributing small independent films outside official channels; the director Matías Piñeiro called it possibly \"the greatest hit ever in independent contemporary cinema\" in Argentina.[15](https://mubi.com/es/films/extraordinary-stories/critics-reviews) Scholars place it as a renewal of the promise of an alternative Argentine cinema at the moment the first wave of the New Argentine Cinema was seen as exhausted, and contrast its shoestring independence with the Oscar-winning mainstream success of *El secreto de sus ojos* (2009).[2](https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/romanistik/llin__s.pdf)\n\nThe film also established the scale of Llinás's later ambitions: his next fiction feature, *La Flor* (2018), runs about fourteen hours.[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/historias-extraordinarias/) In 2025 a restored and remastered digital copy, prepared by [Warner Bros. Discovery](https://www.edgepedia.org/warner-bros-discovery)'s post-production team, was re-released at MALBA in Buenos Aires and made available on [HBO Max](https://www.edgepedia.org/hbo-max).[10](https://www.otroscines.com/post/critica-de-historias-extraordinarias-pelicula-de-mariano-llinas-reestreno)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Historias extraordinarias, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/historias-extraordinarias/)\n2. [Christian von Tschilschke, \"Filmes extraordinarios: docuficción y prácticas intermediales en el cine alternativo de Mariano Llinás\", University of Münster](https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/romanistik/llin__s.pdf)\n3. [Diego Lerer, \"Extraordinary Stories: The Cinema as Playground\", FIPRESCI](https://fipresci.org/report/extraordinary-stories-the-cinema-as-playground-by-diego-lerer/)\n4. [Historias extraordinarias, Google Play Movies description](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Historias_extraordinarias?gl=US&hl=es&id=8D3F039C99DF01BCMV)\n5. [Historias extraordinarias, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2009/films/historias-extraordinarias)\n6. [Gabriela Rivadeneira Crespo, \"Extraordinary Stories, a Mariano Llinás Postmodern Art Film\"](https://uplopen.com/books/1018/files/33134556-1066-4a4c-8b20-505cb4c28bd0.pdf)\n7. [Historias extraordinarias (2008), cinenacional.com](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/historias-extraordinarias)\n8. [Retrospectiva de Cine Argentino 2000–2022, Cineteca, Argentine government](https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2023/11/pmcineteca.pdf)\n9. [Historias extraordinarias, Cinélatino, Toulouse](https://www.cinelatino.fr/film/historias-extraordinarias/)\n10. [Diego Batlle, crítica del reestreno de Historias extraordinarias, Otros Cines](https://www.otroscines.com/post/critica-de-historias-extraordinarias-pelicula-de-mariano-llinas-reestreno)\n11. [Historias extraordinarias (2008), Cinencuentro](https://www.cinencuentro.com/2010/06/22/historias-extraordinarias-2008/)\n12. [Streaming: crítica de Historias extraordinarias y entrevistas a Mariano Llinás, Micropsia](https://www.micropsiacine.com/2025/11/re-estrenos-critica-de-historias-extraordinarias-y-entrevista-a-mariano-llinas-malba/)\n13. [FIFF 2014 catalogue, Special Screenings](https://www.fiff.ch/sites/default/files/inline-files/FIFF_2014_catalogue-web.pdf)\n14. [Roger Alan Koza, Historias extraordinarias, Con los ojos abiertos](https://www.conlosojosabiertos.com/historias-extraordinarias/)\n15. [Historias extraordinarias, critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/es/films/extraordinary-stories/critics-reviews)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2006 to 2009*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Historias Extraordinarias\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Historias Extraordinarias](https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias](https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Historias Extraordinarias\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/historias-extraordinarias. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Historias Extraordinarias is a 2008 Argentine film by Mariano Llinás: 245 minutes, three never-crossing stories of men X, Z, and H, 18 chapters, BAFICI 2008 awards, El Pampero Cine, about 30,000-dollar budget." }