Advantages of Travelling by Train

Advantages of Travelling by Train is a 2019 black comedy film directed by Aritz Moreno in his feature length directorial debut and written by Javier Gullón. The film is based on the novel Ventajas de viajar en tren by Antonio Orejudo and stars Luis Tosar, Pilar Castro, and Ernesto Alterio, among others. The plot concerns about a series of tales within tales triggered by a conversation on a train. The film received four nominations at the 34th Goya Awards including Best New Director and won the Feroz Award for Best Comedy Film. Plot After arriving home to find her husband completely crazy, young literary editor Helga Pato is forced to put him into a psychiatric clinic in the north of the country. On the return train journey, a stranger, to help pass the time, suddenly asks her: “Would you like me to tell you about my life?” He is Ángel Sanagustín, a psychiatrist who is investigating the story of the worst clinical case he has ever come across, that of Martín Urales de Úbeda, a paranoid. From account of Martín sister's Amelia, Ángel develops the story of Martín (rejected and been thrown a croquette by his father), who served as a fighter pilot destined in Kosovo, where he began a relationship with Dr. Linares, a cooperator working in a local hospital for kids, and who uneasily became a female escort involved via one of her clients (Cristóbal de la Hoz) in a heinous plot pertaining child sexual abuse, child pornography, and organ trade. It is only then revealed that Martín is not a fighter pilot and he was not in Kosovo, but he is a former garbage man working in Murcia who lost his arm during a bad working night, and later became utterly paranoid about fellow garbage collectors' true intentions. Furthermore, upon the story of Ángel's visit to Urales de Úbeda's family house near Las Ventas, Amelia is revealed to be Martín, who had otherwise gathered years of undisposed garbage in the basement. After finishing Martín's story, Ángel gets off the train stop to buy provisions and invite Helga, leaving behind a red file full of stories, as the train starts again without waiting for him. Then the fiction develops Helga's backstory, starting with her disenchantment from a relationship with a best selling author and then her ensuing relationship with Emilio, a stand owner in Retiro whom with she begins a new romance upon meeting with their pet dogs, spiralling into an abusive relationship as Emilio gradually submits Helga to behaving like another dog.