The smooth surface of a vicious power grab

Daniel Nelson

Set in military-ruled Argentina in the late 1970s, Azor is a thriller with little action and no thrills – but plenty of chills.

Chills because of the amorality and greed of a wealthy, ruthless elite courted by a quiet, polite Swiss banker, Yvan de Wiel, who is trying to find out what happened to his predecessor, Keys, a man loved or abhorred by his clients until his unexplained disappearance.

Wiel and his wife Ines glide through this dangerous but courtly snake-pit, where conversations are guarded and allusive rather than direct. There are hints of vanished people, of missing property, of sanctioned but illegal police activity, of uncertainties and changing times.

It all takes place in a world of vast estates, racecourses, mansions and patrician clubs where business moguls, military brass and materialistic monsignors agree on how the national pie should be shared.

As the small hints mount up from the cabal of characters who use a private Swiss bank (catering for the special needs of the ultra-rich), the current carries WIel towards a mysterious conspiracy, that is somehow linked to Keys, while trying to maintain his discretion and probity.

The resolution is a journey into a Latin American Heart of Darkness, where Wiel must choose between upholding the honour of his family bank – which he feels Keys has betrayed – and a business opportunity. 

If it’s whizz-bang thrills and adventure you want, this isn’t for you. It’s slow and oblique. The crimes and horrors that are being inflicted on Argentina occur off-screen. On screen you see only the smooth, measured, creepy surface of the dirty, vicious grab for power and profit.