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Nine Queens
Two men run with the backdrop of an Argentine city behind them. The bottom tagline reads the film's title and casting credits.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFabián Bielinsky
Written byFabián Bielinsky
Produced by
  • Cecilia Bossi
  • Pablo Bossi
Starring
CinematographyMarcelo Camorino
Edited bySergio Zóttola
Music byCésar Lerner
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista International
Release date
  • August 31, 2000 (2000-08-31) (Argentina)
Running time
114 minutes[1]
CountryArgentina
LanguageSpanish
BudgetUS$1.3 million[2]
Box office
  • AR$7 million (Argentina)[3]
  • US$12.4 million (International)[4]

Nine Queens (Spanish: Nueve reinas) is a 2000 Argentine heist crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky. It stars Ricardo Darín and Gastón Pauls as con artists Marcos and Juan, who team up to sell a block of counterfeit rare stamps (the "Nine Queens") to a wealthy foreign collector.

Nine Queens was theatrically released in Argentina on August 31, 2000, by Buena Vista International. The film received praise for its screenplay, Bielinsky's direction, acting performances, and its tone; it is considered an Argentine film classic. Nine Queens was a commercial success, grossing $12.4 million worldwide.

In 2022, it was selected as the 10th greatest film of Argentine cinema in a poll organized in 2022 by the specialized magazines La vida útil, Taipei and La tierra quema, which was presented at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.[5] Also in 2022, the film was included in Spanish magazine Fotogramas's list of the 20 best Argentine films of all time.[6]

Plot

[edit]

In the early hours, con artist Juan successfully scams a cashier at a convenience store, and is apprehended by the staff as he attempts the same scam on a different cashier. Fellow con artist Marcos feigns being a police officer and takes Juan away from the store. Marcos requests Juan be his partner for the day, saying his has recently disappeared. Although reluctant, Juan agrees because his father, also a con man, is in jail and requires $70,000 to bribe a judge at his hearing.

Later that day, the pair are presented an elaborate and lucrative scheme when Sandler, Marcos' elderly former associate, contacts him to help sell the "Nine Queens", a counterfeit sheet of rare stamps, to Vidal Gandolfo, a wealthy Spanish collector staying at the hotel where Marcos' sister, Valeria, works. Vidal will be deported from Argentina the following day due to corruption charges.

Vidal meets with Marcos and Juan. Lacking sufficient time to properly authenticate the stamps, Vidal hires an expert who confirms their validity. Vidal offers $450,000 for the stamps, with the exchange to take place that evening. Outside the hotel, the expert tells Marcos and Juan he knew the stamps were forged and demands a bribe. The fake stamps are then stolen out of Juan and Marcos' hands by thieves on a motorcycle who, unaware of their value, toss them into a river.

To salvage the scheme, Marcos and Juan approach Sandler's widowed sister Berta; her deceased husband owned the real stamps. She agrees to sell for $250,000. Marcos says he can put up $200,000 and asks Juan to contribute the remaining $50,000, but Juan becomes suspicious of Marcos since it is the exact amount of money he so far has saved. After visiting his father in jail, he ultimately agrees to the arrangement and the pair buy the real stamps.

Marcos and Juan return to the hotel to meet Vidal. After finding out Valeria is Marcos' sister, Vidal says he will now only buy the stamps if he is able to have sex with Valeria. Valeria agrees, and says her price for doing so is for Marcos to confess to their younger brother, Federico, that Marcos cheated both Valeria and Federico out of their family inheritance. After he does so, Valeria spends the night with Vidal.

The next morning, Valeria informs them that Vidal paid for the stamps with a certified check. On their way to the bank, an attempted mugging is revealed to be an attempted con by Marcos to cheat Juan out of his share; Juan reveals he hid the check and will hand it to Marcos as they reach the bank. Upon arrival, they see a crowd outside and learn the bank has failed due to fraud by the management, making the check worthless. Juan, looking disillusioned, walks away, while Marcos sticks around to see if he can find a way to still get the money.

Juan arrives at a warehouse, where he greets the motorcycle thieves, Vidal, Sandler, Berta, and Valeria, who is Juan's girlfriend – revealing that the real con was to swindle Marcos out of $200,000, as revenge for all the times he cheated his family and his partners.

It has been argued that the film draws attention to the endemic nature of corruption in Argentinan society, whilst demonstrating a national "desire to take action against the corrupt and greedy (embodied in Marcos) in the absence of a reliable justice system".[7]

Cast

[edit]
Ricardo Darín
Gastón Pauls
Leticia Brédice
Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, and Leticia Bredice star in the film
  • Ricardo Darín as Marcos: An experienced con artist who leads a scam against Vidal Gandolfo with Juan.[8][9]
  • Gastón Pauls as Juan: A con artist who unexpectedly partners with Marcos.[9]
  • Leticia Brédice as Valeria: Marcos and Federico's sister and a hotel employee who is embroiled in a legal battle against Marcos for rights to their family inheritance.[9]

Additionally, Ignasi Abadal plays "Esteban Vidal Gandolfo", a rich, corrupt Spanish stamp collector.[10] Tomás Fonzi portrays Federico, Marcos and Valeria's younger brother.[11] Oscar Núñez and Celia Juárez portray Sandler and Mrs. Sandler,[12][13] while Elsa Berenguer appears as Berta, Sandlers's sister and a widow who sells the stamps.[14] Antonio Ugo, Jorge Noya, Alejandro Awada, Ricardo Díaz Mourelle, and Roberto Rey portray D'Agostino, Aníbal, Washington, Ramiro (Juan's father), and Texan, all local conmen who have worked with Marcos and Sandler.[10][15] Leo Dyzen appears as the stamp expert.[10]

Production

[edit]

Development and pre-production

[edit]

Writer-director Fabián Bielinsky finished the screenplay for the film in 1997,[2] which he wrote in less than sixty days.[16] He based the script on real scams that happened to his family members and books about scams,[17] and aimed for it to have an objective point of view in order to maintain the logic of the film itself.[18] The script was initially titled Farsantes (transl. fakers),[16] but Bielinsky changed it as he considered it revealed too much of the story. He chose Nine Queens for its poker-related connotations.[17] Bielinsky had planned Nine Queens as part of a "conceptual trilogy", with each film focused on a different aspect of filmmaking. Nine Queens was the first installment focused on mise-en-scène, The Aura was focused on point of view, and the third film would have been focused on editing.[19]

He unsuccessfully tried to sell the script for over a year. According to Bielinsky, "producers didn't like it" as the Argentine film industry "isn't very fond of genre films."[2] In 1998, he submitted the script for a contest organised by production company Patagonik Films —one of the companies that rejected the idea— and was awarded first place out of 260 scripts submitted.[16][17] The project was stalled for almost two years after Bielinsky won the contest, as Patagonik had the film Clams and Mussels (2000) as a priority over Nine Queens.[17]

Marcelo Camorino joined the project as director of photography in February 2000.[17] The film would originally star Leonardo Sbaraglia as Juan and Gabriel Goity as Marcos. Sbaraglia had read the script a year and a half before it was produced and was already committed to filming Intacto (2001) by the time Nine Queens was to begin production. He left the project a month before filming began.[17] After Sbaraglia dropped out, the studio decided to cast Ricardo Darín instead of Goity.[20] Gastón Pauls joined the film shortly before the start of production.[17] Auditions were held for every role except for Pauls, Darín, and Leticia Brédice.[17] For the role of Vidal Gandolfo, the studio wanted to cast an Argentine actor who spoke a "perfect Spanish accent", but Bielinsky refused as he considered that would take audiences out of the film. Ignasi Abadal was ultimately cast in the role.[17]

Filming and post-production

[edit]

Before filming was scheduled to begin, Bielinsky shot scenes for a week with Pauls, Darín, and a reduced crew as a "warm-up". They then had another week of pre-production before filming.[17] Filming lasted for seven weeks. A steadicam was used for over 30 days, which was expensive for the limited budget available.[17] The film was shot entirely on location,[17] using 35mm film.[21] Most scenes on the streets were filmed using hidden cameras, as the limited budget prevented the extensive amount of extras that were needed, in order not to have bystanders looking at the camera. As the actors were already famous, a small of group of extras was hired to surround them and prevent people from getting close to them. To capture "the veracity of what happens on the street", the crew would film quickly for short stretches of time.[17] Bielinsky aimed for an "absolutely simple, transparent" mise-en-scène, contrasting the complexity of the plot.[18]

Marcelo Salvioli, the film's art director, initially expressed concern for the hotel scenes included in the script, as it would be difficult to find a location that would fit the requirements and that would allow them to use it. The hotel should "not have any nobility, it had to be a new American chain, a place where cheating prevailed". The Hilton Hotel in the neighbourhood of Puerto Madero was coincidentally being built. Producer Pablo Bossi was friends of one of the owners of the hotel and managed to get the location. Filming was often hindered by noises and disorder, as the hotel was under construction, as well as guests and unavailable rooms and spaces.[17] Filming at a bank also brought difficulties, as no banks would let the production film inside. The scene was eventually shot at a former bank on Avenida Corrientes that had gone bankrupt. Its use required a judge's authorization. Three lanes had to be closed for the scene, the gathering crowd was included in the film.[21]

The final scene at the warehouse was filmed twice. The scene was first filmed close to the end of filming. Bielinsky was unsatisfied with how the scene was shot, so about a week after the end of filming, while the editing process had already begun, the scene was reshot. The only shots from the first version were those of Vidal Gandolfo, as Abadal had already returned to Spain.[21]

Nine Queens was shot on film, transferred to digital and edited on Avid Media Composer. According to editor Sergio Zóttola, who had already edited over 50 films, it was "the first script I worked with that could not be touched. The moment you removed something a piece of information was lost and everything fell apart. It was so tight that nothing could be changed. It was brilliant."[21]

Release

[edit]

Theatrical

[edit]

Nine Queens was released in Argentina by Buena Vista International on August 31, 2000.[21] It was screened at various film festivals across South America after its domestic theatrical release,[8] including at the Lima Film Festival in August,[22] and the Bogotá Film Festival and the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in November.[23][24] It then premiered at several U.S. film festivals, including Telluride Film Festival in September and AFI Fest in November,[25][26][27] and at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.[28] In Europe, the film premiered at the Lleida Latin-American Film Festival in January 2001,[29] Fantasporto in March,[30] Biarritz Film Festival in June,[31][32] Fantasy Filmfest in September,[33] and the Films from the South in November.[34]

In South America, the film was theatrically released by Buena Vista International. It was distributed in North America by Sony Pictures Classics and Lions Gate Films for the remaining territories.[35] The film began screening in Brazil on 7 June 2001 and in Chile one week later.[36][37] It was released in Spain on 24 August and had a limited release in the U.S. from 19 April 2002.[38][39] The film released in France on 4 September.[40][41]

In September 2023, Nine Queens was remastered in 4K with Dolby Digital sound by Patagonik and was screened at the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival, with the involvement of the film's original cinematographer Marcelo Camorino.[42] A complete restoration of the film was screened in the official section of 2024 Cannes Film Festival and at the Fantastic Fest in September.[43] In October, FilmSharks acquired the worldwide distribution and remake rights: it announced partnerships with several distributors, including Eurozoom for France, A Contracorriente for Spain, Warner Bros. Discovery for Eastern Europe, and Curzon for the United Kingdom and Ireland, with release dates yet to be announced; Sony Pictures Classics renewed its license to distribute the film in North America.[35] FilmSharks also struck a deal with Star Distribution (formerly Buena Vista) and theatrically re-released the film in South America on February 22, 2024,[44] where it was later made available on Disney+.

Home media

[edit]

Nine Queens was released on VHS format on 9 February 2001 and on DVD on 1 October 2002.[45][46] It was released on Blu-ray format in North America by Sony Pictures Classics on 15 October 2024.[47]

Reception

[edit]

Box office

[edit]

In Argentina, Nine Queens became the "movie hit of the year",[48] and the highest-grossing film in over ten years.[49] It was screened in 49 theaters and had 64,027 spectators in its first four days.[50] In its third week in theaters, it surpassed the 300,000 spectators.[51] It ended its theatrical run with a box office gross of 7 million pesos and over 1.5 million spectators,[3][52] becoming the biggest local film of 2000,[53] and the third film overall, only surpassed by American films Dinosaur and Mission: Impossible 2.[53] Nine Queens remained in the top ten throughout the rest of the year.[50] Internationally, the film earned earned over US$2 million in Spain, US$1.25 million in the U.S. (which was regarded as a 'modest success'),[54] and over 1.5 million euros in France, as well as almost US$1 million in England and 18 million Chilean pesos in Chile.[3][37]

Critical response

[edit]

Nine Queens garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 92% approval rating based on 95 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "Deliciously twist-filled, Nine Queens is a clever and satisfying crime caper."[55] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80/100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[56]

Roger Ebert, in his review of Nine Queens for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film a score of three out of four stars, commending its screenplay and calling the film "an elegant and sly deadpan comedy."[9] Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, and called it "One of the most clever, most enjoyable thrillers in years."[57] Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore gave the film four stars out of five, writing, "the laughs are dark, the puzzle steadily more engrossing and the surprises, just like Heist, are doozies, up to the finale."[58] Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle also gave the film a positive review, writing: "Fast-paced and unerringly surprising, Nine Queens is nicely performed by a large cast [...] David Mamet plowed this con-the-con turf in Heist, House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner, but Bielinsky, in his directing debut, makes it seem sassy and reinvented."[59]

Geoff Pevere of The Toronto Star wrote in his review of the film: "If Nine Queens draws you on a journey that eventually leads up a garden path toward your own suckerhood, it's all the more pleasurable for having done so with such slick expertise."[55] BBC film critic Tom Dawson called the film "a welcome addition to the genre" and a "taut thriller a powerful allegorical resonance."[60]

Accolades

[edit]
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
AFI Fest 1–11 November 2001 International Competition Nine Queens Nominated [25]
Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema 7 October 2001 Best Actor Ricardo Darín (tie) Won [31]
Gastón Pauls (tie) Won
Bogotá Film Festival 9–17 October 2001 Best Film Nine Queens Nominated [24]
Best Director Fabián Bielinsky Won
Audience Award Nine Queens Won [61]
British Independent Film Awards 30 October 2002 Best International Independent Film Nine Queens Nominated [62]
Fantasporto 22 February–3 March 2002 Best Screenplay Fabián Bielinsky Won [30]
Festival du Film Policier de Cognac 14 April 2002 Grand Prix Nine Queens Won [32][63]
Audience Award Won
Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro 12 September 2002 Best Foreign Feature Film Nine Queens Nominated [64]
Lima Film Festival 3–12 August 2001 First Prize, Audience Award Nine Queens Won [22]
Lleida Latin-American Film Festival 2001 Best Director Fabián Bielinsky Won [29]
Audience Award Nine Queens Won
Mar del Plata International Film Festival 15 March 2001 ADF Prize for Best Cinematography Marcelo Camorino Won [65][66]
17 March 2001 Audience Award Nine Queens Won [23]
Oslo Films from the South Festival 12–21 October 2001 Audience Award Nine Queens Won [34]
Sant Jordi Awards 9 April 2002 Best Foreign Actor Ricardo Darín (also for Son of the Bride) Won [67]
Silver Condor Awards 29 May 2001 Best Film Nine Queens Won [68][69]
Best First Film Nominated
Best Director Fabián Bielinsky Won
Best Actor Ricardo Darín Won
Best Supporting Actress Elsa Berenguer Won
Best Original Screenplay Fabián Bielinsky Won
Best Original Score César Lerner Nominated
Best Cinematography Marcelo Camorino Won
Best Art Direction Marcelo Salvioli Nominated
Best Editing Sergio Zóttola Won

Remakes

[edit]

After Nine Queens was released in the United States, several American studios started talks with Bielinsky to produce a remake.[70] In 2003, Warner Bros. bought the film rights for the production company Section Eight founded by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh for a reported figure around US$1.5 million. The film, titled Criminal (2004),[71] was directed by Gregory Jacobs and written by Jacobs and Soderbergh.[72] The film was a commercial failure and only received a direct-to-DVD release in Argentina.[70][73]

Nine Queens was also used as a basis for three Indian films: the Bollywood film Bluffmaster! (2005), the Malayalam film Gulumal (2009) and the Telugu film All the Best (2012).[73]

In October 2023, FilmSharks acquired distribution rights for the film, along with format rights for a spin-off TV series.[35]

References

[edit]
[edit]
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Nine Queens

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
(Spanish: Nueve reinas) is a 2000 Argentine heist thriller written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky. The film follows two small-time swindlers, Marcos () and Juan ([Gastón Pauls](/page/Gastón Pauls)), who team up after a chance encounter to execute a complex con involving the sale of rare postage stamps known as the "Nine Queens" to a wealthy collector. Set over a single day in , it unfolds as a fast-paced of escalating deceptions, drawing on the era's economic instability in to underscore themes of opportunism and betrayal. Bielinsky's feature debut, the film earned widespread critical praise for its intricate plotting and performances, achieving a 92% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and securing multiple accolades, including the Silver Condor Awards for Best Director and Best Original from the Argentine Film Critics Association. Often hailed as a cornerstone of modern Argentine cinema, Nine Queens propelled Darín to international prominence and inspired remakes in Hollywood and elsewhere, cementing its status as a in con-artist storytelling.

Synopsis

Plot Summary

Nueve Reinas (English: Nine Queens), set in , centers on Juan Daly (), a novice swindler attempting a small-scale bill-switching in a , where he is observed by the seasoned Marcos (). Marcos, recognizing potential in Juan, intervenes to extract him from the situation and proposes a for a high-stakes operation: assembling and selling a forged sheet of rare German stamps known as the "Nine Queens" to a wealthy collector preparing to emigrate. The narrative unfolds over a single day, structured as a cascade of interconnected cons and improvisations, including dealings with a possessing a partial stamp sheet, hotel staff, and other figures, as the duo navigates escalating risks and tests of trust. Twists arise from betrayals, fabricated identities, and opportunistic side schemes, heightening tension through the precarious alliances and moral ambiguities inherent in their world of deception, without resolving into straightforward heroism or villainy.

Cast and Characters

Principal Performers

stars as Marcos, a seasoned con artist whose portrayal emphasizes manipulative and streetwise cunning, drawing acclaim for its intricate execution that anchors the film's tension. Critics have noted Darín's performance as pivotal to the movie's success, with his commanding presence effectively capturing the essence of a hustler navigating urban deceit. Gastón Pauls plays Juan, the inexperienced newcomer drawn into the world of scams, delivering a praised for its natural charm and vulnerability that contrasts sharply with his partner's savvy. Reviewers have highlighted Pauls' as outstanding, particularly in conveying the of a young operative in a gritty criminal milieu. His chemistry with Darín enhances the authenticity of their mentor-protégé dynamic, contributing to the film's reputation for believable portrayals of low-level grifters. Leticia Brédice appears in a supporting role as Valeria, Marcos's sister, bringing a grounded intensity to her character's involvement in the unfolding schemes. Other key supporting performers include Tomás Fonzi as Federico and Ignasi Abadal as Vidal Gandolfo, whose antagonistic presences add layers of suspicion and rivalry, with their naturalistic deliveries reinforcing the film's depiction of pervasive distrust among Buenos Aires' underclass operatives. Overall, the ensemble's performances have been lauded for their realism, mirroring the raw, opportunistic interactions of Argentina's street-level criminals during the late 1990s economic strain.

Production

Development and Pre-Production

Fabián Bielinsky, having worked extensively as an on commercials and feature films after beginning his career in his youth, crafted the screenplay for Nine Queens based on the real-world culture of con artists operating in . In mid-1998, he entered the script into a contest organized by the Patagonik Film Group, which it won, securing initial backing for what would become his directorial debut. Despite this success, pre-production faced delays, taking approximately two years to finalize arrangements due to investor skepticism toward an unproven director pitching a non-commercial narrative over lighter fare. Bielinsky structured the story as a compressed 24-hour timeline to minimize exposition and amplify through layered deceptions, reflecting his vision of a normalized to pervasive dishonesty. The project aligned with Argentina's landscape in 1999–2000, financed by Patagonik under producer Pablo Bossi on a modest budget of about $1.3 million. Casting emphasized authenticity in the mentor-apprentice relationship at the film's core: was selected as the cunning veteran Marcos for his versatile charm, while portrayed the impulsive novice Juan, cast for his youthful, ingenuous appearance to convey vulnerability and rapid learning. These choices prioritized interpersonal dynamics to sustain the plot's escalating cons, drawn from observed street-level swindles rather than fictional invention.

Filming Locations and Techniques

Nueve Reinas was filmed entirely on location in Buenos Aires, Argentina, throughout 2000, utilizing the city's diverse urban neighborhoods to ground the story in authentic everyday settings. Key sites included the Hilton Hotel in Puerto Madero for interior hotel sequences, Avenida Corrientes in the Microcentro district for bustling street scenes, and areas in San Telmo, Recoleta, and Montserrat to depict the gritty, economically strained environments central to the plot's con artistry. These choices captured the raw texture of porteño life, including ordinary streets, parking lots off Tacuarí, and gas stations like Esso, enhancing the film's realism without relying on constructed sets. The production adopted a low-budget approach typical of early 2000s Argentine independent cinema, emphasizing practical and minimal to prioritize narrative tension over elaborate technical feats. Cinematographer Marcelo Camorino employed steady, observational camera movements to immerse viewers in the protagonists' deceptive world, with close-ups on faces and hands underscoring the intimacy of scams and building through subtle performances rather than overt stylization. Practical stunts, such as chases through real city traffic and interactions with ambient crowds, were integrated directly into these environments, avoiding green-screen composites and fostering a documentary-like immediacy that mirrored the era's socioeconomic volatility. This technique-heavy reliance on authenticity contributed to the film's taut pacing, where rhythms—quick cuts during cons—amplified the disorientation of betrayal without digital augmentation.

Post-Production

The post-production phase of Nine Queens focused on refining the film's intricate con-artist plot through meticulous and scoring, ensuring a brisk pace that sustained viewer engagement over its 115-minute runtime. Editor Sergio Zottola crafted a structure that layered revelations gradually, amplifying tension by withholding explicit explanations of the scams while mirroring the protagonists' deceptive maneuvers. César Lerner's original score provided sonic underpinnings that evoked the moral grayness of Buenos Aires' underbelly, blending subtle orchestral cues with rhythmic motifs to underscore moments of isolation and betrayal without overpowering the dialogue-driven narrative. The composer's tracks, including "Twist de la Cárcel" and selections drawing on urban influences, were integrated to heighten psychological unease, aligning with director Fabián Bielinsky's vision of a self-contained 24-hour timeline. Final mastering wrapped in early 2000, enabling the film's debut at the that year and its Argentine theatrical release on August 31, 2000, amid growing global recognition of innovative Latin American cinema. This timing positioned Nine Queens as an early exemplar of Argentina's late-1990s cinematic resurgence, characterized by low-budget, high-concept thrillers that captured socioeconomic undercurrents.

Historical and Cultural Context

Economic Crisis Prelude

In the late , Argentina's economy, anchored by the enacted in April , faced mounting pressures from chronic fiscal deficits and rising public debt, which eroded public confidence in state institutions. The plan, which fixed the peso at parity with the U.S. dollar to curb that had peaked at over 5,000% annually in 1989-1990, initially stabilized prices and spurred growth, but by the decade's end, external shocks like the Asian and Russian financial crises exacerbated vulnerabilities. Public climbed from around 29% in 1993 to approximately 45% by 1999, fueled by persistent primary deficits averaging over 1% of GDP despite proceeds and IMF-supported programs that provided repeated loans since to bridge financing gaps. Economic indicators reflected stagnation and brewing risks of that could reignite . Real GDP growth turned negative in 1998 (-3.4%) and 1999 (-3.4%), with a marginal contraction of -0.8% in 2000, marking a sharp deceleration from mid-decade peaks above 5%. rates rose from about 18% in the mid-1990s to 25.9% by 1998, as hovered near 15% and stagnated amid rigid labor markets and overvalued currency that hampered competitiveness. These conditions prompted expansion of informal economies, with unregistered growing exponentially during the 1990s as workers sought alternatives to formal sector rigidity and high taxes, comprising roughly 40-45% of the labor force by 2000. State fiscal mismanagement, including incomplete structural reforms and reliance on short-term borrowing, fostered widespread distrust in government capacity to deliver stability, incentivizing individual survival strategies amid perceived scarcity. IMF conditionality demanded deficit reductions and adherence to the peg, yet recurring loans—totaling billions by 2000—highlighted underlying imbalances rather than resolving them, as provinces and federal entities accumulated off-budget liabilities. This backdrop of institutional failures, rather than innate societal traits, cultivated adaptive behaviors like informal hustling, evident in urban undercurrents by the time Nine Queens was produced and released in 2000, presaging the full crisis.

Societal Corruption and Distrust

The film Nine Queens depicts a Buenos Aires rife with deception permeating street-level hustles, business transactions, and familial bonds, reflecting a broader Argentine societal norm where trust erosion fosters opportunistic fraud as a survival mechanism. This portrayal counters attributions of corruption solely to market dynamics by illustrating how state-backed fiscal indiscipline—rooted in recurrent Peronist-style populism—generates moral hazard, incentivizing private scams as hedges against institutional unreliability. Empirical data from the period underscore this: Argentina's unemployment rate hovered at 15% in 2000, compelling informal adaptations over reliance on faltering collectivist structures amid policy-induced economic volatility. Released in April 2000, the film's cons prefigure the December 2001 —the government's bank withdrawal freeze—and , symbolizing public disillusionment with currency debasement and elite malfeasance enabled by decades of inflationary . Peronist cycles, characterized by hikes untethered to and of fiscal restraints since the , precipitated twin deficits and currency overvaluation under the 1990s peg, culminating in crisis when fractured. In this context, the protagonists' schemes represent rational individual agency amid systemic betrayal, where state guarantees implicitly shield elites while ordinary citizens face devalued savings, debunking narratives that externalize blame to "" rather than causal policy distortions. The film's resonance stems from this realism: widespread protests against banker-politician in 2001 echoed its themes, as citizens confronted a moral landscape where supplanted eroded public institutions.

Release and Distribution

Initial Theatrical Release

had its theatrical premiere in on August 31, 2000. Distributed by Buena Vista International, the film opened in theaters to strong initial attendance, drawing approximately 58,000 spectators in its first days of release. This debut performance positioned it as a standout for an independent Argentine production, topping the national with 98,667 viewers over its opening weekend across 48 screens. The film's early success relied heavily on word-of-mouth buzz, with promotional efforts highlighting its clever cons and narrative surprises without revealing key twists to maintain audience intrigue. Released amid a nascent revival in Argentine cinema, Nueve Reinas exemplified the potential for local films to achieve commercial viability in a market dominated by Hollywood imports. International exposure began with festival screenings, including at the in 2001, which paved the way for broader distribution in —such as on May 18, 2001—and , including on August 24, 2001. These early rollouts underscored the film's appeal beyond Argentina, contributing to its role in revitalizing interest in national filmmaking during a period of economic strain.

Home Media, Remasters, and International Reach

Nueve Reinas was first made available on through DVD releases in the early 2000s, with issuing a North American edition that facilitated wider accessibility beyond theaters. Blu-ray versions emerged later, including a disc scheduled for October 15, 2024, and a edition set for August 11, 2025, in the UK, often featuring restored visuals and subtitles in English and Spanish. In September 2023, the film underwent a 4K remaster with sound enhancement, handled by FilmSharks, which acquired global sales rights in October of that year to distribute the upgraded version. This remaster spurred new deals, including prestige partnerships in the and announced in October 2024, alongside a theatrical rollout in via Eurozoom, extending the film's reach to European markets with improved technical quality. Streaming availability has further broadened access, with the film appearing on the Criterion Channel starting in November 2022 as part of curated international cinema lineups, contributing to renewed viewership among global audiences interested in con-artist narratives. Currently, it streams on platforms like and (with ads), alongside rental options, underscoring its sustained demand in the genre. These post-theatrical expansions, particularly the 4K version's international licensing, highlight the film's persistent commercial viability two decades after its debut.

Reception

Box Office Results

Nueve Reinas was produced on a modest budget of approximately $1.3 million. In , it sold nearly 1.3 million tickets during its theatrical run, establishing it as the biggest hit for a local film in at least a decade. This domestic performance generated substantial revenue relative to production costs, with reports indicating earnings exceeding 5 million pesos locally. Internationally, the film achieved modest but profitable results, including a limited U.S. release in April 2002 that grossed $1.22 million. Worldwide theatrical earnings reached $12.4 million, yielding a strong return on the low initial investment and underscoring its role in revitalizing commercial interest in Argentine cinema amid economic challenges. The disparity between its constrained and outsized audience draw highlighted a financial dominance driven more by domestic popularity than global scale.

Critical Evaluations

Nueve Reinas received widespread critical acclaim for its intricate plotting and the performances of leads Ricardo Darín and Gastón Pauls, with Roger Ebert awarding it three out of four stars in 2002 for its layered structure of cons that keeps audiences guessing until the end. The film's tight script and depiction of street-level deception were highlighted as strengths, drawing comparisons to David Mamet's con artist tales while standing on its own through Bielinsky's direction. In a 2025 rereview prompted by a 4K remaster rerelease, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave it five out of five stars, praising its "masterclass in double dealing" and prophetic insight into Argentina's financial frauds amid economic instability. Aggregated metrics reflect this consensus, with reporting a 92% approval rating from 97 reviews, underscoring praise for technical execution including snappy editing and authentic settings. scores it at 80 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, with critics noting its engaging unpredictability and vibrant energy despite the genre's familiarity. Some reviewers critiqued the film for echoing influences from American filmmakers like Mamet and , potentially rendering its twists formulaic for genre enthusiasts, though Bielinsky avoids direct imitation through cultural specificity. Others pointed to its unapologetic cynicism, portraying hustlers without redemptive arcs as glorifying amorality in a corrupt society, which can feel unrelentingly bleak without broader moral commentary. Despite these notes, the film's execution largely mitigates such concerns, prioritizing over ethical resolution.

Awards and Recognition

Nueve Reinas won seven Premios Cóndor de Plata in 2001, awarded by the Argentine Association of Film Critics, including categories for Best Film, Best Director (Fabián Bielinsky), Best Actor (Ricardo Darín), Best Original Screenplay (Bielinsky), Best Supporting Actress (Elsa Berenguer), Best Editing (Sergio Zottola), and Best Cinematography (Leonardo Rodríguez). The film also secured international festival honors, such as Best Director for Bielinsky and the Audience Award at the Latin American of in in 2001. It received additional accolades at the Mar del Plata International , contributing to its total of 21 wins from 29 international nominations. Retrospective recognition includes its featured streaming on the Criterion Channel in November 2023, affirming its enduring influence in global cinema.

Themes and Analysis

Human Greed and Individual Agency

In Nine Queens, characters pursue self-interested actions through , driven by rather than ideological or external compulsions, portraying cons as deliberate expressions of agency in a competitive . This depiction emphasizes innate instincts, where personal gain overrides collective norms, reflecting a zero-sum where trust serves as a provisional tool rather than an absolute virtue. Betrayals within the narrative illustrate this dynamic, treating alliances as risk-assessed gambits amid scarce opportunities, underscoring how evolutionary pressures favor adaptive opportunism over blind loyalty. The film's framework implicitly counters deterministic explanations linking crime solely to poverty or systemic inequities, instead spotlighting protagonists' volitional skills and strategic choices as key enablers of their endeavors. This aligns with causal realism, wherein individual incentives, distorted by institutional failures, propel entrepreneurial deviations from formal channels—evident in Argentina's late 1990s , where regulatory rigidities and policy-induced instability spurred informal economic activities as viable alternatives. During this period, informal expanded exponentially, with up to 95% of new jobs occurring outside regulated sectors, responding to overreaching labor laws, , and economic volatility rather than mere indigence. Such parallels frame the cons as microcosms of broader adaptive agency, where state interventions inadvertently foster parallel economies predicated on personal initiative and risk calculation.

Mechanics of Deception and Causal Realism

In Nine Queens, the narrative progresses from rudimentary short cons, which exploit immediate opportunities for gain through distraction and , to an elaborate big con requiring coordinated deception and sustained misdirection. A representative short con depicted involves a currency switch at a point-of-sale, where the perpetrator capitalizes on the clerk's brief inattention to exchange a low-denomination bill for a higher one, netting a small but instant profit without prolonged interaction. This mirrors historical short con techniques documented in criminological studies, which prioritize speed and the victim's on-hand resources over trust-building, often concluding in under a minute to minimize detection risk. The escalation to a big con introduces layered , where initial deceptions serve as entry points that leverage the mark's emerging greed to propel subsequent stages. Each phase—locating a susceptible target, demonstrating a fabricated opportunity, and insulating the scheme against —builds on the prior, as the victim's pursuit of outsized returns overrides verification instincts, creating a self-reinforcing chain of commitments. In real-world analogs, such as wire scams or stamp forgeries akin to the film's central ploy, the mark's avarice functions as the primary driver, prompting voluntary escalation from tentative involvement to full financial exposure, independent of coercive external pressures. Empirical accounts of operations confirm that victims' decisions compound losses not through systemic inevitability, but via iterative choices in ambiguous scenarios, where perceived upside eclipses probabilistic downside. This causal structure underscores individual agency amid uncertainty: participants in the film's cons navigate incomplete information, yet outcomes hinge on personal of risk versus reward, debunking attributions to ambient alone. Greed-induced overoptimism, a recurrent factor in documented frauds, prompts marks to interpret ambiguous signals as confirmatory evidence of legitimacy, perpetuating the without reliance on or institutional failures. Historical analyses of big cons reveal that successful operators exploit this psychological vulnerability precisely because it manifests in discrete, volitional steps, allowing small missteps to aggregate into catastrophic exposure through the mark's uncoerced progression.

Legacy

Remakes and Adaptations

The primary English-language remake of Nine Queens is the 2004 American film Criminal, directed by Gregory Jacobs and produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh under their Section Eight banner. Starring John C. Reilly as the seasoned con artist and Diego Luna as his novice partner, the adaptation relocates the action to Los Angeles, substituting counterfeit stamps with fake art while retaining the central plot of a high-stakes swindle involving familial ties and multiple deceptions. Released on September 10, 2004, Criminal preserved key twists from the original but streamlined some subplots for pacing, earning mixed reviews for lacking the Argentine film's gritty authenticity despite strong performances. Its commercial underperformance, grossing under $1 million worldwide, highlighted difficulties in exporting culturally rooted cons to U.S. audiences without diluting tension. The film's influence extended to India, yielding three regional adaptations that localized the con mechanics for domestic markets: Bluffmaster! (2005, ), directed by , which added a subplot and achieved moderate box-office success in Bollywood circuits; Gulumal: The Escape (2009, ), directed by , shifting the scam to a forged and family inheritance for closer fidelity to the original's structure; and All the Best: Fun Begins (2012, Telugu), directed by and starring , which emphasized moral redemption amid the deceptions to align with regional sensibilities. These versions motivated by the story's adaptable framework of greed and betrayal, often amplified ensemble casts and song sequences for cultural resonance, resulting in stronger local earnings than Criminal's global bid but varying critical acclaim for deviations from the source's economical twists. In 2020, Miami-based BTF Media announced plans for a television series , produced by founders Ricardo Coeto and in partnership with Argentine studio Patagonik, leveraging the original's Latin American roots for an episodic expansion. This project, targeting platforms amid BTF's operations in , , and , aims to retain the Buenos Aires underbelly flavor while exploring extended cons, driven by streaming demand for serialized crime narratives over one-off films. As of the announcement on November 18, 2020, production details remained in development, reflecting strategic format rights acquisitions to refresh the IP for broader Hispanic markets.

Cultural and Cinematic Impact

Nueve Reinas contributed significantly to the international visibility of Argentine cinema in the late 1990s and early , coinciding with the buildup to the 2001 economic collapse and exporting narratives of institutional skepticism that mirrored the era's growing public disillusionment with neoliberal policies and financial elites. Released in April 2000, the film achieved festival circuit success and commercial export, helping to define a wave of "New Argentine Cinema" characterized by gritty, urban genre stories that critiqued societal decay without relying on state subsidies or foreign co-productions. Its low-budget production model—made for approximately $500,000—demonstrated how domestic ingenuity could yield global appeal, grossing over $12 million worldwide through theatrical runs and later distribution. Within the con artist genre, Nueve Reinas adapted Hollywood tropes like the elaborate swindle to ' chaotic street economy, emphasizing probabilistic risks and layered deceptions that rewarded viewer vigilance over passive consumption. This approach influenced regional variations by grounding cons in local metaphors, such as forged stamps symbolizing manipulated national value, and showcased mechanics where individual agency exploits systemic vulnerabilities rather than moral redemption arcs common in U.S. counterparts. The 's twist structure, culminating in a reveal of mutual , has been praised for its structural precision, fostering a cinematic style that prioritizes causal chains of deceit observable in later Latin American dramas. In Argentina, Nueve Reinas resonated empirically by affirming cultural esteem for personal resourcefulness amid institutional collapse, as its protagonists' triumphs through wit prefigured the 2001 corralito bank freeze and widespread scams that eroded trust in collective safeguards. This alignment boosted national discourse on self-reliant individualism over dependence on flawed state or corporate entities, evidenced by its prophetic depiction of financial predation that audiences interpreted as a cathartic inversion of real-world victimhood. Sustained viewer engagement is reflected in over 61,000 IMDb ratings averaging 7.9 out of 10 as of 2025, underscoring its lasting endorsement of ingenuity-driven narratives.

Recent Developments

In October 2023, FilmSharks acquired global sales rights, remake rights, and options for a spin-off television series to a 4K-remastered version of Nine Queens. Throughout 2024, FilmSharks finalized distribution agreements for the remastered edition, including deals with for , Curzon for the , and other territories such as via Warner Media. Star Distribution (formerly Buena Vista International) re-released the film theatrically across on February 22, 2024, while Eurozoom handled a French theatrical rollout. In 2025, rereleases continued with a theatrical run beginning July 11 via Curzon, followed by a Blu-ray edition on August 11, and screenings in markets including . These prompted favorable reviews emphasizing the film's taut plotting, performances by and , and its depiction of con artistry amid Argentina's early-2000s economic turmoil. Separately, Btf Media announced plans for a television series to mark its 10th anniversary.

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