The Argentinean film The Future Perfect / El futuro perfecto by German-Argentine newcomer Nele Wolatz took home the top prize at 30th edition of AFI FEST last week. New Auteurs, AFI FEST's juried competitive section, is designed to raise the profiles of first or second-time feature filmmakers. The Future Perfect also won Best First Feature at the Locarno International Film Festival earlier this year.
In The Future Perfect 17-year-old Xiaobin does not speak a single word of Spanish when she arrives in Argentina to reunite with her family. But within a few days, she already has a new name, Beatriz, and a job in a Chinese supermarket. Her family lives in a parallel world, in a l laundromat, far removed from the Argentineans. Xiaobin secretly saves money and enrolls at a language school to offset the anxiety of becoming further enclosed in Chinese culture through an arranged marriage, or alternately, accepting the proposal of coworker Vijay, who hopes to marry her and take her to live with him in India.
AFI FEST took place November 10-17 in Los Angeles, California.
