NCLAFF: Cambio, Cambio (Money Exchange)

Introduced by Javier Etchegaray, History, UNC-Chapel Hill

Free and open to the public.

Dir. by Lautaro García Candela. Argentina. 2022. 89 min. Spanish with English subtitles. Pragda series.

An extended sequence of newsreel footage about Argentina's spiraling inflation since 2019 sets the stage for Pablo, who works on Peatonal Florida, Buenos Aires' economic and tourist epicenter, trying to survive in a precarious and exhausting working world. When he falls in love with Florencia, an architecture student who shows him the city in a different way, he gets involved in the illegal exchange business selling dollars on the black market to improve his standard of living. As an impending currency crisis looms, Pablo seizes the opportunity to strike a blow using the volatility of the dollar value to his advantage. Despite the risks of getting caught by his money-laundering boss, he comes up with an elaborate scheme that could earn them enough money to change his life. Ultimately, director Lautaro García Candela suggests a utopic world where workers start to investigate (and understand) their context and can act upon it, becoming masters of their own destiny.

Shown with short film "La creación del mundo (E'itɨ tiuséijre cháanaka). Dir. by Gabriela Badillo. México. 2017. 1 min. Nayeeri (Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango ) with English subtitles.