Subtle, funny, unpretentious, and completely charming, Florencia Percia’s debut is a warm comedy that starts from a basic premise and builds into a witty exploration of one woman’s desire for change. Clara (the deadpan Elisa Carricajo), a linguistics research fellow, moves into a new apartment in Buenos Aires with her older professor boyfriend, after which he promptly jets off to a conference in Bologna. A chance meeting with a female neighbour leads Clara along a path that will eventually see her overhaul her life…

The fun lies in the way Percia and lead actor Carricajo make this change come about. The visuals are sunny, unbusy, occasionally witty (as when a Tai-Chi session during a country retreat features a herd of oblivious cows in the background), and completely of a piece with the story—form and content mesh perfectly here—while running jokes, like the constant references to honey and mead, bring repeated smiles to one’s face. Finally, the film is so wonderfully, obviously made by a young woman wise beyond her years—the fact that Percia chooses to be gently mocking, instead of rancorous, when various males indulge in a little ‘mansplaining’ suggests her essentially humanist world view. Cetaceans is a real winner, and it announces a major new talent on the Argentine film scene.