As every math undergraduate knows, a Möbius (or Moebious) strip is made as follows. You take a paper strip and glue the ends together; before gluing you rotate one of the ends hy 180 degrees. The Möbius strip has some intriguing properties. Imagine two ants standing at a point of the surface. The first walks along the strip while the second stays in place. Eventually, the first ant will reach the starting point but on the other side of the surface, thus it wiii be invisible to the second ant. This is the origin of the script; only, instead of an ant we have a subway train circulating on rails that sit on a Möbius strip or some higher dimensional version thereof.
Out of this bit of geometry and some cinematic phantasy, director Gustavo Mosquera R. (the R stands for Roral) and his scriptwriters have assembled a taut science fiction film that, unlike others of the genre, does not require excessive doses of suspension of disbelief. The scenario is the Buenos Aires subway system and much of the action happens in its vast, labyrinthine tunnels, underground galleries and workshops that at times seem to represent the Underworld, the kingdom of Hades of Greek mythology.
The Universidad Nacional del Cine (National University of Cinema), founded in 1991 in Buenos Aires teaches every artistic and technical aspect of making movies. It has has been responsible for (and financed) several major projects, this movie being the first. Director Mosquera, a professor at the University enlisted a group of more than forty students that were divided into teams (direction, production, script, art, cinematography, montage, sound) and were instrumental n all aspects of the making of the movie. It was filmed in actual, old fashioned stock and resulted in a very polished product which has attained international recognition (e. G. the MoMA festival New Directors, New Film in 1997) and has already had a remake, Moebius 17 (2005). Perhaps the disappearing train (and the authorities pretending it never happened) is an allegory for the many Argentines disappeared during the military dictatorship of 1976 - 1982.
