Carla and Luciano are a happy couple, exuding the joys of love. One morning, Luciano, a geologist, sets off on a work trip, and then seems to disappear into thin air. . . His worried wife, unable to find any trace of him, sets off to find him in the tiny village in Patagonia he was supposed to be going to. There she meets Luis, who looks just like Luciano, an estate agent married to another woman. Convinced this man could be her husband, Carla tries all kinds of strategies to get closer to him. But the man does not recognise her. The young woman, unwilling to admit he might in fact be a complete stranger, persists in thinking that he is her husband. Is it the end of their relationship as a couple or the beginning of another? In Las vidas posibles the waters are thoroughly muddied. Where is the man so desperately sought by his wife? Is he still alive? Who is this stranger who looks like him, is married to another and pretends not to recognise her?
Shot mainly in Patagonia, Las vidas posibles alternates shots of the immense snowy plains that express Carla’s loneliness with interior scenes, in which the characters are tightly framed in semi-obscurity. The performances by the lead actors, German Palacios and Ana Celentano, give the film all the substance it needs to keep the viewer glued to this more than puzzling story. The carefully crafted soundtrack uses saturated sounds to reinforce the film’s glacial atmosphere and further emphasises the mystery of these events as seen through Carla’s eyes. Eyes so blinded by hope and the will to find the man she loves that they no longer perceive reality as it is.