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Martín REJTMAN
Asian Premiere
The opening of Riders, which begins with a rally of online platform workers protesting pandemic lockdown policies, starkly contrasts with following scenes of delivery workers from Venezuela waiting for orders. The film¡¯s narrative progresses from the common to the extraordinary. Part 1 follows a group of Venezuelan immigrant delivery workers across a pandemic-ravaged city. The protagonist, Joel, is a young man, and the camera intimately explores his life as an immigrant. Part 2 shifts focus to the couriers in Venezuela, detailing their daily routines and labor while meeting Joel's family and friends. In Part 1, streetscapes of couriers making deliveries are intercut with elegant parallel tracking shots of people on bicycles. These refined horizontal tracking shots set the stage for a more rigorous formalist style that follows geometric buildings. Part 1, which explores Buenos Aires, features montages of tracking shots moving left or right, while Part 2, set in Caracas, Venezuela, focuses on urban landscapes. The contrasts between the two parts are also stark. Buenos Aires is depicted mostly at night, whereas Caracas is shown primarily during the day. If Buenos Aires is in the midst of the pandemic, Caracas is at the end of it. Riders explores the conditions of existence for delivery workers in the platform-based economy, while simultaneously showcasing today's "sense of mobility" in an innovative style through unceasingly continuous tracking shots that weave between buildings.
Martín REJTMAN
Born in Argentina,1961. Martín Rejtman is a renowned filmmaker and writer. He wrote and directed many films including his debut feature, Rapado (1992), Silvia Prieto (1999), and The Practice (2023), which were featured at various film festivals such as Locarno Film Fesitvals and Berlin Film Festival and Berlinale.