THE FUTURE PERFECT
El futuro perfecto
Argentina, 2016  | 65  min
Spanish and Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Nele Wohlatz

Rated PG – Youth under 18 may attend

Sunday, Aug 27
7:30 PM | The Cinematheque
Wednesday, Aug 30
3:30 PM | The Cinematheque

Preceded by the short film The Space Shuttle Challenger

Seventeen-year-old Xiaobin is a recent émigré in Buenos Aires, where she’s joined her family after some time living apart. She gets a job in a deli, but her Spanish is not strong enough yet and she is promptly fired. Soon after, she finds work in a supermarket, which is where she meets Indian immigrant Vijay, who asks her out on a date. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her parents, who have no interest in integrating into Argentine society, Xiaobin begins taking Spanish lessons. The extremely clever conceit of The Future Perfect is that as Xiaobin learns new tenses, so her life moves from past and present to an unconditional, and even hypothetical, future.

“Wohlatz’s sensitivity to language, the way it’s used and how the ability to express oneself literally changes the manner in which we deal with the world around us, is subtly yet rigorously demonstrated.” Jay Weissberg, Variety

Xiaobin llegó hace poco de China a Argentina. Prueba nombres españoles como si fuesen vestuarios, a ver cual le queda bien. Intenta nuevos gestos para darle un cuerpo a su nuevo rol. Habla un idioma a pesar de que no lo domina, hasta que se convence a sí misma de su habla. Y mientras tanto, usa la película como sala de ensayo para probar sus futuros posibles.

Producers: Cecilia Salim
Writers: Nele Wohlatz
Cinematographers: Roman Kasseroller, Agustina San Martín
Editor: Ana Godoy
Cast: Zhang Xiaobin, Saroj Kumar Malik, Jiang Mian, Wang Dong Xi, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart

Nele Wohlatz (Hannover, Germany, 1982) studied scenography in Germany and cinema in Buenos Aires. She has directed several short films and videos for theatre plays and is also a film lecturer. In 2013, her first full-length film Ricardo Bär (co-directed with Gerardo Naumann) premiered at BAFICI and was awarded at the Marseille International Documentary Festival.

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