The Argentine actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart gives off strong Roberto Benigni energy in the surreal, or at least wildly eccentric “Kill the Jockey.”

His haircut and slight jockey’s build makes the physical resemblance land, even if the character has relatively few words and “Life is Beautiful” star Benigni wears manic Italian chatterbox as his brand. In sunglass goggles on the track or plunging into a sleek but hyperactive dance duet with Abril (Úrsula Corberó), his fellow jockey and the woman carrying his baby, Biscayart makes his character Remo mysterious and cracked and self-destructive for reasons (somewhat) easily guessed in this new film from Luis Ortega, best-known for “El Angel.”

Remo and Abril both ride for “The King,” the rich, horse-obsessed mobster Sirena (Daniel Giménez Cacho). But when we meet them, the mercurial Remo is spiraling towards rock bottom. He drinks. He barely sobers up for races. And that sobering-up lasts just long enough to snort some horse tranquilizer in the track vet’s office before mounting up.

He takes an ass-over-head tumble straight out of the gate the first time we see him ride. Abril is the rising star, a winner. Remo still gets the best rides, such as that new Japanese stallion Sirena just bought. But we wonder if the seething mobster is just hanging onto the jacked-up jockey for old time’s sake.

“You have to ride sober,” Remo is told (in Spanish with English subtitles). “Behave...”

“Ride them yourself, King,” is dazed, sunglassed Remo’s first line.

He’s in love, and maybe he wants to see his son’s birth. But Abril isn’t sure of this pregnancy. Her career is taking off. And another fetching female jockey (Mariana Di Girólamo) is making eyes at her and swatting her bottom.

How can Remo get them back to where they were when they fell in love?

“Die and be born again.”

For those keeping notes, or reading my review because I take the notes for you, that’s the tell, the key to the screwball odyssey that follows.

Because Remo hears “If you don’t win, they’ll kill you,” and still rides the new Japanese horse — apltly named “Mishima” — right off the track and into traffic, because some Japanese races are run counterclockwise. It’s a good thing Remo steals a woman’s clothes and escapes from the hospital where his prognosis was “not compatible with life,” and in a fur coat with his head in a Joan Crawford-high bouffant bandage, he passes.

Hitmen (Luis Ziembrowski, Daniel Fanego) hunt for him. Children repeatedly mistake him for their mother, as does their drunken father. Old trainer pal Enrique (Osmar Núñez) can only give him so much help. But that help consists of procuring a “not very good” pistol.

Director and co-writer Ortega follows Remo’s odyssey and Abril’s temptation with a tale of drag jokes, shootouts, pregnancy and abortion and off-the-books horse races against dogs, motorbikes and, of course, a vintage Chevy Nova.

Random scenes see Abril comforted (not really) by a pregnant young woman with Down Syndrome at the OB-GYN she may be visiting for a baby health update, or an abortion.

Sirena has a baby of his own, a sumo-sized boy who is seven years old, and who evolves into a black baby later.

“They all get like that with age.”

It’s not wholly coherent. But anyone in the mood for a quirky, absurdist farce with full frontal nudity, gunplay and a lost hero trying to fulfill his pregnant girlfriend’s deal-breaker request should check out “Kill the Jockey” (simply “El Jockey” in Argentina). Because surreal and screwy film fare like this is rare, with or without subtitles.

Rating: unrated, violence, graphic nudity, scatological humor

Cast: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Úrsula Corberó, Luis Ziembrowski, Daniel Fanego, Osmar Núñez, Mariana Di Girólamo and Daniel Giménez Cacho

Credits: Directed by Luis Ortega, scripted by Luis Ortega, Rodolfo Palacias and Fabian Casas. A Music Box Films release.

Running time: 1:36