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The Moneychanger
Uruguay / Argentina / Germany 2019
produced by Diego Robino, Santiago López Rodríguez for Oriental Features, Rizoma Films
directed by Federico Veiroj
starring Daniel Hendler, Dolores Fonzi, Germán de Silva, Benjamín Vicuña, Luis Machín, Gabriel Perez, David Roizner Selanikio
written by Arauco Hernández Holz, Martín Mauregui, Federico Veiroj, music by Hernan Segret
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina, the two South American
"superpowers", litte Uruguay had over the years become a
financial hub for these two countries, in other words, a place where you
could "park" money to hide it from the taxman. In the 1950s,
Humberto Brause (Daniel Hendler) starts to work at Sr. Schweinsteiger's
(Luis Machín) financial institute, with his job at first being smuggling
large sums of money out of the country to Europe. Humberto's good at his
job and soon rises in the ranks, and not only that, he also marries
Schweinsteiger's daughter Gudrun (Dolores Fonzi). Now Schweinsteiger is a
man of some principles, meaning he tries to maintain a certain level of
respecatbility by not laundering money for politicians - Humberto's much
less so, when he learns of the possibility, he only sees the money to be
made, seizes the opportunity - and lands in jail. But once he's out, more
and more politicians want to do business with him, so eventually he starts
his own institute, and ... business is booming through the rest of the
decade and all through the 1960s. Eventually, Humberto receives a visit
from an obvious gangster, Harry, who has a huge deposit to make - and
Humberto knows there's something fishy and he shouldn't do it ... but then
again, it's more money than even he could have imagined, so he wills in. It's
the 1970s, and economy in the big neighbours isn't doing too great
anymore, and by the by, Humberto loses clients. Stressed, Humberto has his
first heart attack, but bounces back. Seeing his business in decline
though, he decides to use the money entrusted to him by Harry to support
his company - after all, he hasn't heard from Harry in years, and he's
more likely than not dead by now. So things are on the up again - until he
receives a visit from a Mr. Bopland (Benjamín
Vicuña), who claims to be Harry's associate and who wants the money
back. Humberto turns him down, only to learn who Bopland really is:
Harry's rival who tortured the whereabouts of the money out of Harry, and
he won't shy away from torturing the money out of Humberto, too, should he
not give it up willingly. Now Humberto knows he's in a fix, as he can't
very well go to the police, as the money's hot property, he knows
Bopland's not joking, and he knows if he gives up Harry's money, his whole
life will collapse. He fakes a second heart attack to buy himself some
time - but he knows, he doesn't have forever, and Bopland is a very
persistant man ... Now in narration, The Money Changer
very much resembles Martin Scorcese's gangster epics like GoodFellas
or Casino, meaning comprising a story spanning decades and
sprinkled in crime into a compact and stringent tale that never lingers
but is always on the move. Visually though, director Federico Veiroj
totally goes his own way, opting for South American lightness, and in
tone, the film is much more openly comedic - and actually pretty
hilarious, thanks to a clever screenplay that finds the humour in
something as dry as money laundering, and a first class cast manages to
bring this across while playing it straight. Fun for sure, and well
worth a look.
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