LULÚ + INTROCinema Mentiré and Jellied Reels partner for the first time to present prolific Argentinian director Luis Ortega’s sixth feature
23 SEPTEMBER 2026, 6.45PM | The Castle Cinema
Cinema Mentiré and Jellied Reels invite London audiences to enter Ortega’s oddball universe, as two young urchins turn the streets of Buenos Aires into their own magical playground.
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Luis Ortega was born in Buenos Aires in 1980 and, at just 19, directed his first feature, Black Box (Caja negra, 1999), which received multiple international awards and established him as one of Argentina’s most promising young filmmakers.
Since then, he has developed a distinctive filmography and singular vision, moving between genres and scales, from low-budget independent projects to larger ones, including the Netflix series History of a Clan (Historia de un clan, 2015). His film The Angel (El ángel, 2018) premiered to great acclaim in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and went on to become that year’s highest-grossing film in Argentina. His latest, Kill the Jockey (El jockey, 2024), marks a return to a more surreal and experimental mode within a high-end production.
But before those more mainstream works that brought him wider circulation in Europe, there was Lulú: a punky exploration of youthful love that combines Godard and Leonardo Favio. Despite premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, Lulú had a relatively modest international run, with screenings in Rome and Hamburg, and was only released in Argentina in 2016.
This little gem has since been eclipsed by Ortega’s subsequent films – to the point that even the production company no longer had an English-subtitled copy. Cinema Mentiré had to dig one out of old hard drives, while Jellied Reels took care of synchronising the files. This is indeed a rare opportunity to discover one of the many facets of this unique voice to emerge from New Argentinian Cinema, and who continues to reinvent himself throughout his career.
Dir. Luis Ortega, 2014, Argentina, 84’
LULÚ
Wednesday 23 September 2026, 6.45pm
The Castle Cinema First floor, 64-66 Brooksby's Walk, London E9 6DA
Lucas and Ludmila are young lovers living on the streets of Buenos Aires, where they navigate the city as if it were a board game.
Lucas works collecting bones and butcher-shop scraps in a truck, spending much of his time roaming the city with a gun, firing celebratory bullets at city monuments and excited by the infinite possibilities around him and the sense of impunity that love affords him. Ludmila rolls around in a wheelchair she might not really need, avoiding her family’s responsibilities. When Ludmila finally makes a decision that leaves Lucas alone in the city, he will have to reconsider his behaviour and relationship with his gun.
Lulú is a freewheeling and unruly film from director Luis Ortega whose surreal cinematic language cuts through expected norms and tackles the tribulations of love, loyalty, and lawlessness.
