As el custodio, it?s Ruben?s duty to keep the Minister of Planning under constant surveillance.

If the Minister gets out of the car, Ruben gets out of the car. If the Minister turns left, Ruben turns left. If the Minister goes to the country club with his family for the weekend, Ruben must follow along. If the Minister decides to rest and have a nap, Ruben must keep watch over the sleeping man.

Although Ruben must always be present, he must also go completely unnoticed. A shadow, Ruben witnesses everything from the sidelines, as if life was passing by some meters away from him. Yet, despite his insider?s view, he never understands clearly what?s going on, what?s being talked about, nor where the characters come from or go to. Single Ruben is hardly even a protagonist of his own life.

A lonely life, involving a mentally unstable sister and a ditzy niece, the sale of illegal arms and cheap prostitutes. Plus the monotonous routine of being a bodyguard and the occasional humiliation from the Minister or his family? Some jobs result in almost replacing a life for another. Such pressure can ultimately explode. This is Ruben?s inevitable outcome.

EL CUSTODIO is Rodrigo Moreno?s first feature film. His original screenplay won the 2005 Sundance/NHK Award for Best Latin American Script.

Moreno collaborated as writer and director with Ulises Rosell and Andr?s Tambornino on the 2002 feature EL DESCANSO (Sweet Repose), an offbeat comedy which won Best Film at Canada?s Images du Monde Festival. Moreno also wrote and directed COMPA?EROS, the last segment of the 1998 episodic feature MALA EPOCA (Bad Times). Moreno had previously made several short films, his first being 1993?s NOSOTROS, which won Best Film at the Bilbao Festival (Spain), and which was also screened in the Berlin Festival Forum.

Moreno was born in Buenos Aires in 1972. He graduated from the directing program of the Argentinian capital?s Universidad del Cine, where he has been teaching screenwriting and directing since 1996.