{ "id": "epa78688zc", "slug": "the-aura", "title": "The Aura", "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": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films", "label": "Film noir and neo-noir films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1977-2022", "label": "Released 1977 to 2022", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1977-2022" } ], "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": "The Aura (El aura) is Fabián Bielinsky's 2005 Argentine neo-noir heist thriller starring Ricardo Darín as an epileptic taxidermist who takes over a dead man's armored-car robbery plan in Patagonia; his final film, an Oscar submission and multi-award winner.", "snippet": "The Aura (El aura) is Fabián Bielinsky's 2005 Argentine neo-noir heist thriller starring Ricardo Darín as an epileptic taxidermist who takes over a dead man's armored-car robbery plan in Patagonia; his final film, an Oscar submission and multi-award winner.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1977-2022", "markdown": "# The Aura\n\n**The Aura** (Spanish: *El aura*) is a 2005 Argentine neo-noir crime thriller directed and written by Fabián Bielinsky, starring [Ricardo Darín](https://www.edgepedia.org/ricardo-darin) as Esteban Espinosa, a shy, epileptic taxidermist who secretly plans perfect robberies in his imagination and unexpectedly gets the chance to carry one out.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/el_aura) It was Bielinsky's second and final feature film, following his internationally successful debut *[Nine Queens](https://www.edgepedia.org/nine-queens)* (*Nueve reinas*, 2000), and it became Argentina's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 78th Academy Awards.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/) • [3](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2006/archive/the-aura/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / year | *El aura*, 2005; Argentina–Spain–France co-production[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/) |\n| Director and writer | Fabián Bielinsky, with Pablo De Santis credited as co-writer[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/) |\n| Runtime | 134 minutes (2h 14m); some catalogs list 138 minutes[3](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2006/archive/the-aura/) • [4](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film405788.html) |\n| Argentine release | September 15, 2005[5](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/el-aura) |\n| Critical reception | 88% Tomatometer (48 reviews) and 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 78; IMDb 7.1/10 from about 16,000 votes[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/el_aura) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-aura/) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/) |\n| Box office | $1,805,261 worldwide, of which $58,804 in the United States and Canada[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/) |\n| Awards | Silver Condors for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay; FIPRESCI Prize at Havana; 11 wins and 7 nominations in total[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/awards/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and title\n\nEsteban Espinosa is an introverted taxidermist in Buenos Aires who suffers from epilepsy and has a near-photographic memory. In his workshop, where he gives the appearance of life to dead animals, he repeatedly imagines and plans flawless robberies that he never executes, convinced that his intelligence sets him apart from the \"fools against fools\" struggle of police and thieves outside.[5](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/el-aura) • [8](https://festivaldemalaga.com/edicion/ver-pelicula/?id=3560) After his wife leaves him, he accepts a colleague's invitation to go hunting in the forests of [Patagonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/patagonia). There he accidentally kills a shady character and discovers that the dead man had been planning the robbery of an armored van carrying the profits of a local casino. Espinosa steps into the dead man's plan, but his lack of criminal experience and his illness put his life in real danger.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/el_aura) • [9](https://www.14films.de/en/das-festival/archiv/2007/the-aura)\n\nThe title refers to the aura, the state people with epilepsy experience before a seizure. In the film it is the eerie, frozen moment of perfect clarity in which Espinosa knows a seizure is coming but can do nothing about it; critics also read it as the clarity with which he sees, or imagines he sees, the world.[3](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2006/archive/the-aura/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-aura/) A French festival program describes the Spanish phrase the same way, as the moment of floating between consciousness and unconsciousness that epileptics sense when a seizure is coming.[10](https://efran.cancilleria.gob.ar/userfiles/regardsdailleurs.pdf)\n\n## Production\n\nBielinsky conceived the story in the mid-1980s, roughly twenty years before release, as a genre film with a protagonist who was, in his words, much more heroic from an ethical standpoint than the final version. Where the first draft led the character toward redemption, the finished film is darker and more complex.[11](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/subnotas/440-150-2005-09-15.html) Shooting ran from October 18 to December 27, 2004, on 35 mm film with [Dolby Digital](https://www.edgepedia.org/dolby-digital) sound and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.[12](https://primordiales.com.ar/estrenos/aura.htm) Much of the film was shot in and around [Bariloche](https://www.edgepedia.org/bariloche) in Patagonia, whose forest setting replaced the urban Buenos Aires of *Nine Queens*.[13](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/radar/9-2488-2005-09-04.html) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/)\n\nThe production was a co-production among Argentina's Patagonik Film Group, Spain's Tornasol Films, and France's Davis Films, with participation from Canal+ España, Televisión Española, INCAA, and other companies.[4](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film405788.html) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-aura/) Checco Varese was the cinematographer, Lucio Godoy composed the music, and Alejandro Carrillo Penovi and Fernando Pardo edited.[3](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2006/archive/the-aura/) Bielinsky said he deliberately made the film \"reactive\" to *Nine Queens*: instead of the earlier film's tightly closed mechanism, he let the plot come apart as his protagonist's fantasies of control collapse.[13](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/radar/9-2488-2005-09-04.html)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film premiered in Argentine cinemas on September 15, 2005 and opened in Madrid on September 21.[5](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/el-aura) • [14](https://www.globalstonefilms.com/FESTIVALES/ARGENCINE/catAC07.pdf) It screened in the Official Section of the 53rd San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2005, where it was nominated for the Golden Seashell, and at the [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival) in 2006, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema Dramatic.[15](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2005/sections_and_films/official_section/7/530136/in) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/awards/) The Argentine Film Critics Association awarded it Silver Condors for Best Film, Best Director (Bielinsky), Best Actor (Darín), and Best Original Screenplay (Bielinsky), and it won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film at the Havana Film Festival.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/awards/) According to the production notes, the film sold to more than 32 countries and gathered more than 20 international awards.[12](https://primordiales.com.ar/estrenos/aura.htm)\n\nCritics consistently placed it in dialogue with *Nine Queens*. Jonathan Holland of Variety called it \"a quieter, richer and better-looking piece\" that handled its manipulations with more maturity than the earlier film.[16](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/criticreviews/) A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that Bielinsky, \"in what would sadly be his last film, demonstrates a mastery of the form that is downright scary.\"[16](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/criticreviews/) On Metacritic it scored 78 based on 19 reviews, with 18 positive and one mixed.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-aura/) In Argentina, Horacio Bernades of Página/12 called it a masterpiece and noted that the film opens and closes with close-ups of eye sockets, fixing a first-person point of view it never abandons.[11](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/subnotas/440-150-2005-09-15.html)\n\n## Bielinsky's last film\n\nFabián Bielinsky died on June 28, 2006, of a heart attack while sleeping in a hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, at the age of 47, making *The Aura* the last film he completed.[17](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-109023/) • [18](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/744158) A scholarly account of his two features argues that they share one universe, an Argentina of the early 2000s marked by corruption and violence, but differ sharply in style: *Nine Queens* is realist and dialogue-driven, while *The Aura* is hyperrealist, grave in tone, and built on mise-en-scène, with the forest as its intimidating, treacherous space.[19](https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/repertorio/article/download/10435/15580/42823?inline=1) Film scholar Rielle Navitski groups *The Aura* with other Argentine crime films of the period as \"new policiales\" that rework Hollywood heist and whodunit codes for both domestic audiences and the international art-house market.[20](https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/53/4/359/1644155)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Aura (2005), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/)\n2. [The Aura, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/el_aura)\n3. [The Aura, New Zealand International Film Festival 2006 archive](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2006/archive/the-aura/)\n4. [The Aura (2005), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film405788.html)\n5. [El aura (2005), cinenacional.com](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/el-aura)\n6. [The Aura Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-aura/)\n7. [The Aura (2005) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/awards/)\n8. [El aura, Festival de Málaga](https://festivaldemalaga.com/edicion/ver-pelicula/?id=3560)\n9. [The Aura, Around the World in 14 Films (2007)](https://www.14films.de/en/das-festival/archiv/2007/the-aura)\n10. [Regards d'ailleurs, Argentine Embassy cultural program (PDF)](https://efran.cancilleria.gob.ar/userfiles/regardsdailleurs.pdf)\n11. [Horacio Bernades, \"La consagración de un punto de vista\", Página/12, September 15, 2005](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/subnotas/440-150-2005-09-15.html)\n12. [El Aura production notes, Primordiales](https://primordiales.com.ar/estrenos/aura.htm)\n13. [Mariano Kairuz, \"El lobo del hombre\", Página/12 Radar, September 4, 2005](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/radar/9-2488-2005-09-04.html)\n14. [Argencine catalog, Comunidad de Madrid (PDF)](https://www.globalstonefilms.com/FESTIVALES/ARGENCINE/catAC07.pdf)\n15. [El aura / The Aura, San Sebastián Film Festival 2005 Official Section](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2005/sections_and_films/official_section/7/530136/in)\n16. [The Aura Metacritic reviews via IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420509/criticreviews/)\n17. [El Aura, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-109023/)\n18. [Experimental Latin American Cinema: History and Aesthetics, JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/744158)\n19. [Bértold Salas Murillo, \"La Argentina de Fabián Bielinsky\", Repertorio Americano (2016)](https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/repertorio/article/download/10435/15580/42823?inline=1)\n20. [Rielle Navitski, \"The last heist revisited\", Screen 53(4), 2012](https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/53/4/359/1644155)\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 › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1977 to 2022*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 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/the-aura", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-aura.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": "\"The Aura\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-aura. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Aura](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-aura)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-aura](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-aura). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Aura\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-aura. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Aura is Fabián Bielinsky's 2005 Argentine neo-noir heist thriller starring Ricardo Darín as an epileptic taxidermist who takes over a dead man's armored-car robbery plan in Patagonia; his final film, an Oscar submission and multi-award winner." }