01/28/2019
The film, a portrait of immigration, is to be shown on Thursday 31st January.
Foco Punto de Vista comes back this month to the Filmoteca Navarra. It does so on Thursday 31st January with The Future Perfect, the second full-length feature from the German-Argentinean director Nele Wohlatz, a subtle portrayal of the everyday life and loneliness of immigration. This is one of the films of the year, winning prize after prize at the festivals it has visited: Best First Feature, Special Young Jury Prize and Gold Boccalino Prize from independent critics at the 2016 Locarno Festival, for example. Or Zinebi First Film at the Zinebi Festival in Bilbao.
The film tells the story of Xiaobin, a 17 year-old girl who arrives in Argentina not speaking a word of Spanish. However, after a few days she has a new name, Beatriz, and a first job in a Chinese supermarket. Her family lives in the parallel world of their laundry, cut off from Argentineans. Xiaobin secretly puts money aside and enrols at a language school. What she learns there, she tries out in the street. After the lesson on arranging a date, she makes a date with an Indian customer at the supermarket. She can hardly communicate with Vijay, but even so they begin a secret relationship.
When they practise the conditional, Xiaobin starts thinking about her future. What would happen if her parents found out about her relationship with him? The better her Spanish gets, the more Xiaobin plays a part in writing the script for the film. Her Chinese friends discuss events in the classroom like a chorus. The future perfect becomes a testing ground for her new life.
Foco Punto de Vista
The Future Perfect
Thursday 31st January, 8.00pm
Argentina, 2016
Director: Nele Wohlatz
Screenplay: Pío Longo, Nele Wohlatz
Photography: Roman Kasseroller, Agistoina San Martín (C)
Starring: Xiaobin Zhang, Saroj Kumar, Mian Jiang, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.
Language: original in Spanish and Mandarin with subtitles in Spanish
Length: 65 min.
Find out more here.
