JOHNNY 100 PESOS (JOHNNY CIEN PESOS) Tribute to Americas Film Festival

Based on a 1990 event in downtown Santiago de Chile, Johnny One Hundred Pesos is an absorbing thriller about the botohed robbery of an illegal currency exchange parlor. The leader of the bandits is Johnny, a student who’s bored of his academic routine and has decided a trip to Cuba is just what he needs. The similarities to Dog Day Afternoon are striking, with one key difference: the direct involvement of a government apprehensive over the tarnishing of an image based on progress without violence. Director Gustavo Graef Marino mixes authentic documentary footage of the siege with the kinetic dramatic sequences-the result is galvanizing cinema. Johnny One Hundred Pesos is the best Chilean film since The Frontier-Eddie Cockrell