![OUTShine 2026: Marco Berger Discusses ‘The Mirror,’ His Queer, Chinese Box / Russian Doll Cinematic Enigma [VIDEO]](https://thecontending.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/E-9.png)
Celebrated, Out Argentine filmmaker Marco Berger’s riveting cinematic challenge, The Mirror, is world premiering at OUTShine LGBTQ+ Festival Fall edition, and it is his best film to date.
The Out writer-director has fashioned a truly tantalizing Chinese Box/Russian Doll, short film-within-a feature-within a—well, you decide!
He’s also starring in one of his works for the very first time.
The Mirror begins with an aspiring young filmmaker, Juan (Ivan Corujo), who is taken with Mateo (Berger), a former actor he meets at a friendly gathering. Mateo gave up acting years ago to focus on a family. Juan invites him over to ask him to star in his new short film which is about two men, Fernando and Diego, to be played by Mateo and Juan respectively, who accompany their filmmaker girlfriends to a location forest where they give in to a growing tension/desire and share an intimate kiss.
Mateo agrees to act in the short and when they begin to rehearse, life begins to replicate art, and boundaries begin to blur as the two artists share their own kiss. But is the situation being manipulated? And just when you think you have a handle on what is going on Berger flips the switch and you’re not sure what is real and what is art. Berger ingeniously ping pong pings his scenes so Juan and Mateo may actually be the characters in Fernando’s film.
As the dynamics shift and re-shift, a kiss becomes the most erotic of sensual acts, and Berger lifts the mask off male desire, daring to explore it without judgment but, instead, with a genuine and touching gentleness.
Berger made his feature directorial debut with Plan B (2009). He achieved great critical acclaim with his second feature, Absent(Ausente, 2011), which won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlinale.
Other film credits include Hawaii (2013), Taekwondo (2016), The Blonde One (Un rubio, 2019), Young Hunter (El cazador, 2020), Horseplay (Los agitadores, 2022), The Astronaut Lovers (2024) and Perro Perro (2025). His films are usually queer-themed festival favorites.
The prolific director, who runs his own acting school in Buenos Aires, has two new films on the horizon, The Future, which begins shooting next month and Play, which begins production in March of 2027.
Link to Marco Berger’s YouTube channel with Trailer for The Mirror.
The Mirror world premieres this month at OUTShine on October 16, 2026. TICKETS.
The Contending had a terrific VIDEO chat with the filmmaker.
