Nine Queens (2000)
Coming Out at 31 August 2000 in theaters
“Nueve reinas”
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Nine Queens is crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky and starring Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, Leticia Brédice, Tomás Fonzi and Alejandro Awada.
The story centers on two con artists who meet and decide to cooperate in a major scam. The film was nominated for 28 awards and won 21 of them, and is now considered a classic in Argentine film history.
The film opens at a convenience store early in the morning, the present time. Juan (Gastón Pauls), a con artist, successfully scams the cashier, and later attempts the same scam again on the next shift. Marcos (Ricardo Darín), who has been observing him, steps in pretending to be a police officer and takes Juan away. As soon as they are far enough, Marcos tells Juan he is not actually a cop but a fellow con man. Juan asks Marcos to show him the ropes, because his father, also a con man, is in jail and he needs to raise money quickly to bribe a judge to reduce his father’s sentence from 10 years to 6 months.
Then, a scheme seemingly falls into their laps: Sandler (Oscar Nuñez), a former business associate of Marcos, needs his help to sell counterfeit copies he made of some rare stamps called “The Nine Queens”. The potential mark is Gandolfo (Ignasi Abadal), a rich Spaniard who is facing deportation and desperate to smuggle his wealth out of the country. Gandolfo has no time to fully check if the stamps are authentic but he hires an expert (Leo Dyzen) to do a quick check and is satisfied. He offers $450,000 for the stamps, with the exchange agreed to take place that evening. In the intervening time, the stamp expert demands from Juan and Marcos a cut, as he knew the stamps were in fact forged. The fake stamps are then stolen out of Juan and Marcos’ hands by thieves on motorcycles who, unaware of their value, toss them into a river.
Director: Fabián Bielinsky
Writer: Fabián Bielinsky
Stars: Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, Graciela Tenenbaum, María Mercedes Villagra, Gabo Correa, Pochi Ducasse, Luis Armesto
Cast:
| Gastón Pauls | … | Juan |
| Ricardo Darín | … | Marcos |
| Graciela Tenenbaum | … | Convenience Store Employee |
| María Mercedes Villagra | … | Convenience Store Employee 2 |
| Gabo Correa | … | Convenience Store Manager |
| Pochi Ducasse | … | Aunt |
| Luis Armesto | … | Bar Waiter |
| Ernesto Arias | … | Bar Manager |
| Amancay Espíndola | … | Woman in Elevator |
| Isaac Fajm | … | Vendor |
| Jorge Noya | … | Aníbal |
| Leticia Brédice | … | Valeria |
| Oscar Nuñez | … | Sandler |
| Ignasi Abadal | … | Vidal Gandolfo |
| Carlos Lanari | … | Man on Cell Phone |
| Roberto Rey | … | Texan |
| Tomás Fonzi | … | Federico |
| Celia Juárez | … | Mrs. Sandler |
| Alejandro Awada | … | Washington |
| Antonio Ugo | … | D’ Agostino |
| Leo Dyzen | … | Stamp Expert |
| Elsa Berenguer | … | Berta |
| Carlos Falcone | … | Berta’s Lover |
| Ricardo Díaz Mourelle | … | Ramiro |
| Ulises Celestino | … | Bellboy |
| Norberto Arcusín | … | Official |
| Gabriel Molinelli | … | Cárdenas |
| Emanuel Mercado | … | Boy at Subway |
| Claudio Rissi | … | Spaniard (voice) |
| Roly Serrano | … | Castrito |
Sources: imdb & wikipedia