Nine Queens

Reviewed by David Stratton

In present-day Buenos Aires, Juan, Gaston Pauls, needs money to help his father, who is in prison. While carrying out a minor swindle in a convenience store, Juan is spotted by Marcos, Ricardo Darin, a devilish-looking and very sophisticated con-man who's on the prowl for a new partner. They team up, and Juan proves to be a resourceful pupil when he wins a bet that he can get a woman he's never met before to give him her handbag. The chance for a big-time swindle occurs when the men are contacted by Marcos' sister, who works at the Hilton hotel; a former partner of Marcos is trying to con a wealthy Spaniard into buying a sheet of apparently priceless stamps, the Nine Queens. We don't often see a film from Argentina in our cinemas, so Nine Queens is very welcome. There's something of a renaissance of cinema in that country at the moment, despite its severe financial problems, and this is a fine example of contemporary Argentinian cinema. It was a huge success at home and no wonder - young writer/director Fabian Bielinsky has come up with a wonderfully clever, tricky screenplay which, though it might not quite convince when you think about it in retrospect, certainly keeps you guessing as it unfolds. Terrific performances, too.

David Margaret SBS movieshow

Set against the backdrop of an almost futuristic Buenos Aires, Bielinsky's debut film is a breathlessly audacious homage to both Hitchcock and Mamet where the boundaries between conspiracy and veracity defy easy definition. A crisp Aristotelian structure, intricate plotting, and a masterly ensemble cast render this one of the most remarkable Latin-American features of recent years. A huge box office hit in Argentina, Nine Queens is a seductive study of elusive trickery in a shadowy universe where nothing is ever quite what it seems.

When money gets tight and times get tough, a veteran con man and a rookie hustler team up for a day of clever schemes and small time cons. As they work the streets for pocket change they find a one in a million chance at wealth in a counterfeit set of extremely valuable stamps known as the "Nine Queens". With a buyer in place, what once seemed to be an easy opportunity for big money gets turned upside down as millionaires, hustlers and thieves compete in the swindle of a lifetime. Who's playing who in the underground world of con artists and street hustlers where deception is survival?

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