4. Nine Queens (2000, Argentina)
Original Title: Nueve Reinas. A witty and exciting story about two con men that decide to work together in a big scam: sell to a wealthy Spanish business man a forged version of the Nine Queens, a collection of rare and valuable stamps. Juan is a reluctant young man that is on the streets to get money for his father, while Marcos is a clever veteran that tries to take advantage of every situation he's in. They decide to work together for one day, combining Juan's nice-guy face and Marcos' experience to get them U$ 450k in the biggest scam of their lives. They want to sell a fake version of the Nine Queens for a Spanish stamp-collector that is leaving the country in the next day. They have 24 hours to close the deal, but it will be much harder than they expected. Explaining more about the plot would be tricky since it would be almost impossible not to give any spoilers or hints about some of the unexpected twists in the film. Written and directed by Fabio Bielinsky, Nine Queens has a story that is perfectly wound and that makes total sense, although it still manages to surprise us until literally the last minute. The movie is vibrant, entertaining and completely unpredictable, and as soon as you finish watching it, your instinct will be to watch it again to try to notice all the things you failed to realize at first.