El Eternauta’s journey from page to screen is almost as long as its titular hero’s travels across time. In recent decades, the comic has been optioned by Argentine luminaries like Adolfo Aristarain and Lucrecia Martel, as well as the Spanish genre-king Alex de la Iglesia. However, it wasn’t until film-and-television veteran Bruno Stagnaro took the helm that Héctor Gérman Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López’s dystopian vision could be fully realized. 

Born of a filmmaking family, Stagnaro became a pioneer of a new national cinema, a trend that brought Argentina back to the limelight with a series of productions that earned awards and nominations at top festivals around the world.  Beginning with his first feature-length film, Pizza, Beer and Cigarettes, which he co-directed with Israel Adrián Caetano, his naturalistic style and fascination with the margins of Argentine urban society have been referenced and emulated by a generation of local filmmakers. As his career can attest, Stagnaro was breaking ground long before he stepped into the world of big-budget science fiction.

Here are some of his most memorable works — and where you can watch them online:

Pizza, Beer and Cigarettes (1998)

Co-directed with Israel Adrián Caetano, this film spearheaded the aforementioned New Argentine Cinema of the early 2000s. Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes echoes the social realism of directors like Argentine Leonardo Favio and Spaniard Luis Buñuel in its depiction of a group of young friends trying to survive as petty thieves wandering the streets of downtown Buenos Aires. A very young Jorge Sesán, who would later play the fan-favorite role of Franco in The Eternaut, co-stars as Pablo — a street thief and the main protagonist’s best friend.

The film’s grim setting, meanwhile, offers a statement on the damage inflicted by the  neoliberal economic reforms of the 1990s. With its endearingly delinquent characters and bold new aesthetic, Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes caused a sensation after its premiere at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in 1998. The movie went on to become a box-office hit and has emerged as a cult classic in the decades since.

Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes was recently removed from Netflix, but it’s still available to stream and download for those willing to engage in the cinephile’s favorite (and not-so-legal) way of watching indy films. 

Okupas (2000)

Available on Netflix (Spanish with English subtitles)

Think Friends, and now take away New York, the handsome people, the nice apartments and the jobs. What you’ll get is this gritty urban story about four young squatters navigating the devastated landscape of Argentina’s economic crisis of 2000, right before the full-blown socioeconomic meltdown of the following year. Stagnaro’s TV show became a cult phenomenon with its ultra-realist aesthetics and stories of friendship and loyalty in the no-future atmosphere young Argentines experienced through the late nineties. The show also became an endless source of now classical memes and stickers. 

On the 20th anniversary of the show, Netflix bought the rights and added a new soundtrack specially commissioned to Santiago Motorizado, lead singer of one of Argentina’s finest rock bands, El Mató a un Policía Motorizado. 

Un gallo para Esculapio (2017)

Available on Cine.ar and Max with English subtitles

A young working-class man from Misiones named Nelson arrives in Buenos Aires with a rooster for his brother, Roque. Unable to locate him, Nelson will enter an underworld of “asphalt pirates” (Argentine slang for truck thieves) and the cock-fighting scene of Buenos Aires’ conurbano.

Stagnaro’s jump to mainstream TV, Un gallo para Esculapio was produced by an established film company, Underground, as well as major TV networks like TNT and Telefé. The show, which Stagnaro co-wrote with his fellow The Eternaut screenwriter Ariel Staltari, stars A-listers like Peter Lanzani (Argentina, 1985) and Luis Brandoni, along with Staltari in the secondary role of Loquillo. 

Guarisove, los olvidados

1995
11 minutes
Available on Cine.ar.

Stagnaro’s first short film was selected for Historias Breves I, the first edition of a compilation promoted by the Argentine film institute (INCAA).  A landmark achievement in the country’s film history, Historias Breves spawned a New Argentine Cinema whose directors included the likes of Lucrecia Martel and Daniel Burman. A short, humorous anti-war tale set during the end of the Malvinas War, Guarisove is a curiosity but one that captures Stagnaro’s interest in the idiosyncrasies of Argentine culture. Its stripped-down, realist style of storytelling also mirrors a society’s difficulty processing the trauma of a deadly conflict. 

Impostores (2009)

Originally imagined as an adaptation of late director Fabian Bielinsky’s masterpiece Nine Queens, Stagnaro wrote and directed this 13-episode miniseries for FX. Impostores (Impostors) tells the story of Vicky (Leticia Bredice) and Alex (Leonardo Sbaraglia), two young, white-collar con artists with contrasting personalities who eventually team up in a dubious business venture conceived by an incarcerated hustler (Federico Luppi). Filmed entirely on location, each episode centers around a different scam, transporting viewers from Buenos Aires’ racetracks, to its casinos to the Fraud and Scams department of its Federal Police. True to the story it tells, Impostores also can be watched online if you search for it carefully — and dismiss things like copyright.