Sangre De Mi Sangre

Sometimes a film with certain narrative or structural weaknesses has so much excellence in its content that you are well rewarded if you just throw out your criticisms and enjoy the moments as they unfold.

"Sangre de mi Sangre" (the better title is the original "Padre Nuestro") was just given two showings at the Chicago Latino Film Festival. It's a film that deserves wider distribution. Perhaps overlong, and with a plot that is rather too complex and relies on coincidence a bit too much, this movie nevertheless sucks you emotionally into the lives of its characters, Mexican immigrants living at the margins in New York City. The core of the movie is the story of the two young Mexicans trying in their separate ways to survive in an alien environment. The plot revolves around stolen identity and personal interconnections as the two protagonists try to gain security through money or through relationships. The story recalls another masterpiece of ambivalence, "The Son", and I'll say no more, except to indicate that the conclusion of the action is richly satisfying, if harsh. Just a word about the performances: the director is clearly a genius at handling actors. The leads give virtuoso turns to their characterizations, and the cast throughout shows never a false note.

Mr. Zalla is a very good director, he gets wonderful performances from the actors and demonstrates a great sense of visual composition. However the writing is sloppy at best, the story does not hold water, is filled with inconsistencies and maintains a gruesome, almost sordid tone to a movie that could have said just as much about the condition of immigrants without stripping them of their humanity. That the characters are flawed is expected, but must they all be beyond hope of redemption? A day after seeing this movie, I am still making lists of all the details that did not add up or were entirely too coincidental for such an otherwise "realistic" movie. The soundtrack by Brian Cullman is excellent. One wishes there was more of it.

My wife and I saw Padre Nuestro, now called Sangre De Mi Sangre at a special showing at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and were treated to a question and answer session by the Director/writer, Christopher Zalla. The name of the movie was changed from Padre Nuestro to its new title in Mexico where it had a fairly wide distribution to avoid confusion with an earlier light weight comedy made in Chile with the same title. This movie is anything but light weight as it revolves around the gritty life experiences of illegal aliens struggling to survive in the United States in a dog eat dog world.

This movie contains wonderful performances from each of its four principal characters and Jesus Ochoa (Diego), who is the most well recognized of the Mexican cast, fills the screen with a performance as large as his girth. Armando Hernandez (Juan) deserves mention for an equally powerful performance with only a slightly lesser efforts from Jorge Adrian Espindola (Pedro) and Paola Mendoza (Magda, which certainly did not detract from the excellence of this film.

Filmed on location in a gritty industrial section of Brooklyn, the story contains a sense of believability with only a modest level of contrivance necessary to develop a credible, seamless story line. A powerful movie, which measured up to its success at the Sundance film festival in 1987. The movie will have a limited release in the United States at a single theatre in five city's during the month of May, 2008, so it may not be widely seen, which would be a shame. I look forward to seeing Christopher's next film which we are told will be set in a Bolivian prison for Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and which may star Don Cheadle.

This movie really really amazed me and also kind of renewed my faith in Mexican cinema, although it is set in New York. As mentioned on this page, I definitely saw it as a counterpoint to Under the Same Moon, and it even features one of the same actors. It shows the side of (illegal) immigration that turns respectful, principled people into criminals and liars (and vice versa I would say). In his book "Las peliculas de mi vida" Alberto Fuguet quotes an el salvadorian cab driver as saying that everyone in El Salvador is a criminal but once they reach the USA they are all about helping each other. This movie, of course, attests to the contrary. It forces viewers to question their views about the plight of illegal immigrants, obviously, but also raises questions about the idea of entitlement and family. I can't recommend it enough, not only to fans of Latin American cinema, but to any North American who wants to see how bad the illegal immigrant experience can be.

Also excellent performances by the whole cast, but for me Armando Hernandez stole the show. I had only seen him previously in "Amar te duele," so obviously this was a pleasant surprise for me, but he oscillates between mildly menacing and downright sinister and despicable in a performance that affected me more than anything I've seen in a while. I'm sure he'll be getting some roles worthy of him based on this performance. Honorable mention as well to Juan Diego and Paola Mendoza, they were great.

For me, this is the kind of movie that I want to show to everyone I know, just because it is the kind of movie that made me question many ideas held by Mexicans and North Americans about the American dream. I think that although it is a much darker picture of Mexican entrance into America, it does coincide with Under the Same Moon in that very strong ties, and sometimes even familial ties, are formed based on shared language and/or experience. Watch this movie!

I saw this film at Sundance -- and was blown away -- it is a fascinating film and extremely well done. There are a lot of different ways to look at the immigration issue, but I think that Chris Zalla chose a unique path. However, what was so beautiful about this film is that it is not an immigration movie -- that is what I loved. It was a human story. A family story. Painful, but uplifting all at the same time. I was riveted by the actors, especially Paola Mendoza, who I think is incredibly talented. I hope that films like this can open up a dialogue about the immigration issue in this country, as I think that it is time for us, as a nation, deal with this problem. I look forward to seeing the film again.