This refreshingly offbeat film from Argentina follows a few days in the life of Marcia (Tatiana Saphir), an overweight girl working in a Buenos Aires lingerie shop, whose going-nowhere life is interrupted by a pair of sullen, lesbian wanderers named Mao (Carla Crespo) and Lenin (Veronica Hassan). Marcia accompanies them semi-unwillingly at knife point, as the three girls embark upon a directionless odyssey involving taxi-jacking, killer whales, sapphic sex, shoplifting, the beach, and a stay at the boarding house of Lenin's chain-smoking Aunt Blanca (Beatriz Thibaudin). It's an impressive debut for director Diego Luhrman, and a jewel in the Argentine New Wave crown. Shot in beautiful 16mm black and white, the film is sparingly, lovingly framed. Great sound and natural music--overheard from radios--substitutes for the film score, allowing emotions and feelings to manifest themselves organically. With its blend of deadpan hipness and a humanistic warmth that uses style and substance in equal measure, SUDDENLY is a direct descendent of the best French New Wave films of the late 1950's and early '60s. Based on the novel LA PRUEBA by Argentine writer Cesar Aria, it was an audience favorite at 2002 international film festivals such as Locarno, Havana, and Buenos Aires.