Mariana Wainstein

Born in Buenos Aires back in 1981, Mariana Wainstein made her mark as a writer and director who doesn’t really follow the rules—she bends them, sometimes snaps ‘em, and then laughs about it after. Her films, especially “Linda” (2024) and “Las Hormigas” (2017), don’t just sit quietly in some corner of international cinema. They demand attention. You watch her stuff and you can’t help but notice how she gets under your skin, poking at the ordinary and making it feel strange, even a little dangerous. With “Linda,” Wainstein dives into the tangled mess of modern relationships—think less Hollywood gloss, more “I’ve definitely been there and hated every minute of it” realism. Her characters? Oh, they’re messy. They make awful decisions, say the wrong things, and, honestly, feel way too relatable. There’s a kind of raw intimacy in her storytelling, that sense that you’re eavesdropping on someone’s late-night confessional. She’s got this way of making Buenos Aires feel like the best supporting character in the story—alive, pulsing, unpredictable. “Las Hormigas” is a totally different beast. It’s not afraid to get weird, to dig into the absurdity of daily life and twist it around until you’re laughing one second and cringing the next. Wainstein’s direction leans into the chaos, but she never loses her grip on the emotional core. You walk away from her movies feeling like you’ve been sucker-punched, but in a good way. Honestly, if you’re tired of cookie-cutter movies, she’s the director you want to watch.