From the New Directors/New Films (2017) Website: Winner of the Best First Feature prize at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival, Nele Wohlatz’s assured debut is a playful, exceptionally idea-rich work of fiction with documentary fragments. Seventeen-year-old Xiaobin arrives in Argentina from China unable to speak Spanish. Employed at a Chinese grocery store, she saves up enough money to pay for language classes, and enters into a secret romance with a young Indian man, Vijay. As she begins to grasp the Spanish language’s conditional tense, she imagines a constellation of possible futures.
COMMENTS FROM THE FF2 MEDIA TEAM
Rating from FF2 Editor-in-Chief Jan Lisa Huttner: 4/5
A 17 year old girl from rural China arrives in Argentina with no language skills and minimal family support. But Xiaobin is amazingly intelligent and resilient, and she soon makes a home for herself in a city that could be anywhere.
German director Nele Wohlatz‘s first feature film melds her own experiences teaching German in Argentina with the real experiences of a student named Xiaobin Zhang (newly arrived from China and determined to learn Spanish).
The story that results may be fiction, but nevertheless provides poignant into the realities of migration and globalization. Days later, Wohlatz’s eloquent story has expanded my world view. © Jan Lisa Huttner (3/22/17) FF2 Media
Rating from FF2 Contributor Isabell Höjman: 4/5
We’re in Buenos Aires, but not really. At first I was disappointed. I have always wanted to go to Buenos Aires, but this is not what I pictured. Then I realize that is the strength of this film. We really get to see Buenos Aires from Xiaobin’s perspective. She and her family live their lives separated from the city and its Argentine inhabitants; they really could be anywhere.
That her Spanish is poor makes Xiaobin even more distant from the life of Buenos Aires. But it does create a special relationship to both her boyfriend “Vijay” (Saroj Kumar Malik) and her everyday life. © Isabell Höjman (3/23/17) FF2 Media
Still photos found online. Go to IMDb’s page for The Future Perfect for additional information about the cast and crew.
