1. Las Cautivas

Sundays at 5 p.m. in Teatro Metropolitan (Av. Corrientes 1343)

One of the riveting productions on offer in Buenos Aires right now, Mariano Tenconi Blanco’s music-heavy play follows the colorful and intense story of a young French woman named Celine who is captured by Indigenous peoples in 19th-century Argentina. The play consists of alternating monologues by Celine — played by Camila Peralta, standing in for Laura Paredes — and Rosalila, played by Lorena Vega, her powerful, indigenous captor. Together, the women journey through a deserted Pampa landscape in a story that is one part comedy and two parts western melodrama. Drawing from 19th century Argentine literature and politics, the play is a beautiful and heartbreaking love story and an absolutely moving theatrical experience.

2. Open Art Studios by La Gran Paternal 

June 1 and 2 — 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.  — Paternal, Buenos Aires

More than 200 resident and guest artists will be showcasing their work at 36 art studios in La Paternal neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The program also features live musical performances and an assortment of street activities, each of which is free and open to the public. The event is organized by La Gran Paternal, a self-managed, independent network of visual artists who promote artistic and community collaboration as an “emotional-political neighborhood identity”. You can find the full program and a map of the venues here.

3. Classic films in 35mm at MALBA and Sala Lugones

Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be

Sunday, June 2 — 10.30 p.m. — MALBA (Av. Pres. Figueroa Alcorta 3415)
Tickets

The Film Department of the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (MALBA) special program of “screwball comedies” from the 1930s and 40s comes to an end this weekend, but you can still catch one of the most iconic entrants in the genre: Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 classic satire To Be or Not to Be, starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny. Featuring slapstick galore, the movie is a hilarious story about a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who use their talent to fool the occupying troops soon before WW2. Philosopher Slavoj Zizek counts it among his favorite films, describing it succinctly as “madness,”adding “You cannot do a better comedy”.

Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love

Saturday, June 1 – 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. — Sala Lugones (Av. Corrientes 1530, 10th floor)
Tickets

Set in Hong Kong during the 1960s, In the Mood for Love follows new neighbors, Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung). He is the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper, while she is a secretary at a local export company. Together, they realize that their respective spouses are having an affair, and the pair are tempted to begin one of their own. The crowning achievement of director Wong Kar-wai, In the Mood for Love is a beautiful and vivid portrait of loneliness, love, and longing — one of the most emblematic films of Asian cinema and a modern classic. The film is being screened on  35mm print as part of Sala Lugones’ special program Cinemateca Argentina: 75 years, 75 films, which honors the 75th anniversary of Cinemateca Argentina Foundation.