Maria Onetto actually has a head. The title's just a metaphor.

Psychological horror that is subtle and engrossing, The Headless Woman is just the latest reason why Argentine director Lucretia Martel, earlier of La Ciegna and The Holy Girl, is a major force in contemporary cinema.

In The Headless Woman, Veronica (Maria Onetto) is a bourgeois woman who hits something–a dog? a person?–while driving on a lonely dirt road. She also hit her head on the steering wheel and proceeds to the ER, though she mentions nothing of a possible victim to anyone. When she finally breaks down and tells her overprotective husband that she fears she may have killed someone, he makes sure every trace that could tie her to a possible murder vanishes.

Instead of feeling relieved, Veronica is disquieted by how easy it for her to be disappeared from life. And all the while, her interactions with family and friends expose the frustrations and disappointments hidden within her well-appointed life. Onetto is marvelous as a woman not sure if she is plagued by nightmares or reality. And the slow burn she displays right down to the quietly devastating conclusion is masterful.