If there’s one thing that often falls at the first hurdle of the language barrier, it’s humor. Nuance, timing, wordplay, cultural nudge-nudge wink-wink can all fall flat, leaving a puzzled and painfully embarrassing heap of cultural miscues. Not so for 32-year-old Landia Films director Agustin Alberdi, whose distinctly Argentine comedic touch is transcultural.

“People from Buenos Aires are a really strange mix of Europeans,” he suggests of why Argentine comedy work generally travels so well. “There’s a lot of Italian and Spanish presence; there are French buildings and English ports. Many people read newspapers and know what is happening in politics. At the same time as a country we are very,” he pauses for the right word, “chaotic. I think that all mixes in our advertising.”

Chaotic is an understatement given the country’s economic rollercoaster. Alberdi echoes the positive attitude of many Argentines in arguing that this has instilled a wide streak of creative risk taking, as well as an entrenched gallows humour.

That cultural melting pot of the cerebral and the absurd saw Alberdi walk away with a Gold Lion at Cannes this year for his Stella 4% work for Mother, London. The campaign paid homage to the French New Wave, pastiching mainstream Hollywood films 8 Mile and Die Hard, alongside hit TV show 24, through the introspective, existential lens of masters like Godard and Truffaut.

Alberdi’s comic scope is much broader though: He’s not averse to getting silly, recently helming a brace of musical mismatches including a hip-hop star singing Ricky Martin for Personal Music, or epic feel-good musical parodies for Schneider “Bromistas” and CTI “Song of the Summer”.

Born in a small town in Patagonia and brought up on ranches, Alberdi’s initial instincts leaned toward an engineering career, but moving to Buenos Aires, the temptations of the city’s cosmopolitan, bustling creative community drew him in.

At 18 he was hired by Elle magazine, working in color correction and from there he worked as a music video VJ at MTV. Initially with Peluca Films, he signed to Landia in 2003, taken under wing by one of Argentina’s top directors, Andy Fogwill.

A keen fashion aesthetic and eye for color marks his early work including his Perry Ellis campaign, which lampoons the hardships facing models. The spots caught our eye, and Alberdi was featured in our Directors To Watch issue in 2005. 

“[Art direction] used to be the main thing when I started directing. It was very easy for me to understand, it used to be my safeguard. Maybe nothing happened inside but I was safe,” he admits. But his focus has shifted from fashionista to funnyman. “What is relevant for fashion is not really important for comedy, so I had to leave fashion outside of it all. It took some time though,” he jokes, ”I love fashion for myself.” Q

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