El Trazo Simple de las Cosas (The Simple Road to Things) opens one’s eyes to the beautiful details of life by experiencing childhood through the eyes of the Argentinean cartoonist, Ricardo Siri Liniers.

The documentary can be seen as two parallel stories: the life of the cartoonist and the filmmaker’s (Franca González) journey in discovering the somewhat unapproachable artist.

The documentary is shot with great sensitivity in a manner that emulates and captures the cartoonists’ style. It is calm, warm, intimate and subtly humorous.

Liniers, who lives among piles of paper and paint, could be described as a workaholic. He considers his comic drawing his life.

In one scene when Liniers shows González his old sketchbooks, it is clear the colours and ink constitute his entire world and are his chief means of expression. Flipping through old crackling pages of random sketches, personal and published comics, some drawn with coffee and wine, reveal the vast body of art he creates.

Transitions between scenes use Liniers’ cartoons and expressive sound effects that enhance their beauty.

Liniers’ inner world revolves around the characters he creates in his cartoons.  His characters include a band of penguins, which he describes as communists; a young girl with a cat, Fellini; a large hairy blue monster, Olga, and a group of short people with tall hats.

“At first I used to draw myself as I was,” he said in the documentary “but when I turned myself to a rabbit I felt that I was freeing myself from constraints.”

Liniers also talked about the responsibilities that accompany his success, referring to his cartoon of a bear named Remoun, who hands out flowers. He was unaware that a young girl had been killed a week earlier at a Zoo by a bear named Remoun.

“It is always a great risk,” he said, “for instance, if I make a cartoon of a plane crashing and the next day it does.”

One of the pitfalls of documentary filmmaking is the director’s tendency to insert him or herself too far into the story. González stays within this fine line. Her experience with the artist creates a sense of intimacy without taking over the film.

In the scene of their first meeting together in which the filmmaker suggests the idea for the film, Liniers responded by telling her, while drawing in his sketchbook, that he would prefer to keep his privacy. Just before departing he left her a comic on the table that showed the filmmaker and the rabbit version of him sitting together. A thought bubble above him says “How do I say 'No' to her?”

The challenge of getting to know this private cartoonist was worthwhile as it produced this beautiful documentary, which exposes an enigmatic character and creates a work of art on its own.