Review of “The Death of a Comedian”, a film by and with Diego Peretti

After its presentation in the Latin American Competition of the Mar del Plata Festival, the first feature film as director of the also protagonist Diego Peretti will arrive in commercial cinemas on November 20, in this case co-directed with another debutant in the feature film such as Javier Beltramino.

Premiere 11/11/2025

Published on 11/11/2025

The death of a comedian (Argentina-Belgium/2025) Director: Diego Peretti and Javier Beltramino. Screenplay: Diego Peretti. Cast: Diego Peretti, Malena Villa, Haneul Kim, Marioska Fabián Nuñez and Eric Bier. Photography: Gustavo Biazzi. Edition: Anabela Lattanzio. Art Direction: Sebastián Orgambide. Sound design: Mercedes Tennina. Original music: Lolo Micucci. Distributor: Moving Pics. Duration: 94 minutes.

Diego Peretti arrived at the 40th edition of the Mar del Plata Film Festival twice: he is the protagonist of the houseby Gustavo Triviño, one of the national representatives in the International Competition, and also debuts as director and screenwriter in The death of a comediana project carried out through collective financing and under the label of Orsai Audiovisuales.

An actor accustomed to the comic and popular register, Peretti surprises by leaving that well-known area to construct a melancholic, dark and rarefied film, where humor appears more as a defense against the abyss than as a tool for entertainment.

The starting point is simple: a comedian receives the news that he has only a few months to live. From this diagnosis, he embarks on a journey without much logic or clear destination towards Brussels, the city where the fictional character who has always obsessed him was born. What could have been a story of redemption or farewell instead takes the form of an existential drift crossed by the absurd and the dreamlike. Peretti and co-director Javier Beltramino avoid realism to put together a story full of detours, black humor and suspended climates where each chance encounter works as a distorting mirror of the protagonist.

On that journey three mysterious local characters appear (an artist, a militant and a street musician) who mix bohemianism with political disenchantment. Without appealing to great speeches or morals, The death of a comedian works on the figure of the comedian as someone condemned to represent a similar version of himself, even when life seems to come to an end. A search similar to the one I had Make me laugh / Funny People (2009), by Judd Apatow, although with a more existential than sentimental tone.

Peretti looks content and avoids the gestures of self-celebration that he could have fallen into, especially in the case of his debut feature. It is logical that this should happen, since his creature is still a man facing the certainty of his finitude.

Beyond a certain narrative dispersion and some arbitrariness, The death of a comedian It’s a risky bet by someone who could have played it safe. In times of proven formulas and algorithmic cinema, an imperfect film that dares to deviate from the path it seemed predestined to follow has no less value.