If they haven’t already, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the insurance companies in Argentina went broke. When traffic laws are deemed optional and speeding is the norm, inevitable accidents can mean big losses for these companies and families, but big gains for shady firms and lawyers.

Director Pablo Trapero captured the unfortunate possibility in his 2010 narrative “Carancho,” which stunned viewers at the 2011 Wisconsin Film Festival. The dark thriller, with a near perfect cast, takes its viewers through the vicious cycle of greed, corruption and violence in Argentina.

Sosa (Ricardo Darín) plays a crooked lawyer that under any other circumstance would be the bad guy. Instead, the central character is almost heroic in his efforts to turn over a sudden new lead after falling for the young doctor Lujan (Martina Gusman).

For reasons that weren’t entirely clear, Sosa lost his license to practice law. As such, it appears that his only option is to work for a corrupt firm, which preys on traffic accident victims.

It’s Sosa’s job to chase ambulances and get victims to trust him so that the firm can con them out of the majority of the money that is owed to them.

Lujan works around the clock trying to save lives, but like all other characters in the film, she isn’t without major flaws. She meets Sosa on an ambulance run. Although she is reluctant at first to get involved with the “vulture” the film becomes focused on their dysfunctional relationship. Thus, leading to an almost comically anticipated, but uncomfortably long and perhaps slightly exaggerated sex scene.

The couple decides to finally break away from the sick cycle, but instead is engulfed in it even further. The outcome, though unexpected, is brilliantly foreshadowed in an earlier romantic scene that could be easily overlooked.