Mariela is a 35 years old young woman who returns to her hometown after fifteen years.
There, she expects to look for and meet Gaston, an old calf love. Gaston has a two
years older brother, Carlos, with whom Mariela was also romantically involved. Carlos
always felt attracted to her but he always knew that her love was fonder to his brother.
Although Mariela always felt attraction and love for Gaston, she could never avoid
falling into Carlos’ traps. He wanted to get her away from his brother in order to stay
with her. Gaston has always been the weakest of the three. The Forest of Dogs is a love
triangle story, full of abuses, secrets and lies.
During Mariela’s adolescence her parents died in an accidental fire. One night, the
flames consumed the house while the couple was sleeping. Mariela saved her life
because she was not there. When she arrived she found the house on fire and the
neighbors who couldn’t do anything.
She always blamed these neighbors for not helping to save her parents’ lives. After this
incident, Mariela murders her neighbors’ dogs as revenge. Gaston was the perpetrator
of these murders. Although there were some suspicions in the village, nobody never
really knew who was responsible for these acts.
Mariela kept on living for some time at her aunt’s house, and then went to Buenos Aires
looking for a better future. Fifteen years after her departure, Mariela returns to the town
where she grew up.
Once there, she decided to look for Gaston. At the moment of the story, he is a shy and
lazy boy without any motivation in life. When they meet again, he rejects her. He
recriminates her for having left the village. For him, her return makes no sense now.
This makes Mariela come closer to Carlos, Gaston’s brother. Carlos, with a strong and
authoritarian personality, has always dominated his younger brother. He is the only one
in the village who knows the truth about the dogs because he had discovered it at that
moment, and this was useful for him to extort both teenagers; he made Gaston do
whatever he wanted and also made Mariela have sex with him. At present, Carlos is
not close to his brother.
Mariela hounds Gaston. He rejects her and during a confrontation between both he
reveals that he can’t cope with his life anylonger. The meeting with Mariela leaves him
absolutely unmotivated; he sees Mariela as a threat. The following day, Mariela is
detained by the local police to inform her that Gaston has committed suicide.
Mariela is disconsolate. She hesitates about what to do. At the same time, she is
humiliated by Carlos, who not only extorts her by that dark past which only he knows;
but also has a reason now to indirectly blame her for the death of his younger brother
because her arrival precipitated this event.
Mariela is seen in the village as a pariah. She is kicked out of the hotel where she was
staying. They closed their doors on her.
Believing that Carlos is responsible for Gaston’s death as he constantly humiliates him,
Mariela decides to plan her revenge. Carlos represents that past full of pain and
anguish. Besides, as he is the only one who knows her past secret she deceives him into
thinking she wants to stay with him. Mariela seduces him and finally kills him.
Carlos’ murder happens in a forest, in a similar place where the dogs were killed.
Mariela who has planned everything, buries the body to make it disappear, and
afterwards she takes a bus back to Buenos Aires.
Carlos has died like a dog and with him Mariela’s dark past.