PATRICK JONES recommends a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal fuse into witness-bearing and manifesto-making
Cinelatino Festival
New films from Latin America pack a sharp political punch

LA CHICA NUEVA (The New Girl) by Argentinian film-maker Micaela Gonzalo is a splendid debut film, which tells the story of the homeless and broke Jimena who goes to meet her half-brother in Rio Grande.
Seeking to change her life in the midst of a financial crisis, the young Jimena finds a job in a factory there and, with it, a community to belong to.
The director intermingles the personal transformation of the young protagonist with a critique of working life in a film tackling the injustices of an uncaring capitalism. As it does so, it invokes an authentic socialist alternative in an innovative and vigorous way.
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