STUDIO: IFC Films
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2008
STARRING: Jesus Ochoa, Armando Hernandez, Jorge Adrian Espindola, and Paola Mendoza
WRITTEN BY: Christopher Zalla
DIRECTED BY: Christopher Zalla
GENRE: Foreign/Drama
RATING: R

There are a million tragic stories of immigration and homelessness being written in the Big Apple as you read this review. The Statue of Liberty asks the world for their tired and poor but doesn't offer much guidance about what to do when they get here. One of the more intriguing fictional stories of immigrants in New York City is Sangre De Mi Sangre (a movie that has also been known as Padre Nuestro), an independent film which won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival but is only now finding its way into theaters, opening today at the Music Box in Chicago. Past winners of Sundance include You Can Count On Me, American Splendor, and Primer, so you know Sangre De Mi Sangre is in good company, but it's clearly been a tough road to get this dark drama from Park City, Utah to a national stage. We've already gone through another Sundance and last year's winner is just now getting released. There's nothing easy about Christopher Zalla's very good film, a story that will get under your skin in its depiction of the dark underbelly of the American dream.

Excellent newcomer Jorge Adrian Espindola (who has some of the most heartbreaking eyes the camera has seen in a long time) plays Pedro, a young Mexican immigrant who barely speaks the language, but makes his way to New York City to try and find the father that he's never seen. Pedro has the misfortune of being shipped across the border in the same van as the nefarious Juan (Armando Hernandez), a conniving thief whose own father left him with only two things, a knife and the scar it created in his chest. Juan is escaping an already bad life, while Pedro is trying to start one with his reportedly restaurant-owning father in the big city. Juan sees an opportunity in Pedro. The poor guy's father doesn't know what he looks like. So, Juan steals Pedro's bag and tries to take his identity, tracking down Diego (Jesus Ochoa), the father, and trying to connect with him. Diego wants nothing to do with his son, even though he's unaware that the young man isn't even who he claims to be. Meanwhile, Pedro is stuck in a city where he doesn't speak the language and doesn't have a dime to his name. He befriends a drug-addicted prostitute named Magda (Paola Mendoza) and tries to find not only his father, but his identity.

Clearly, the opportunity for blatant symbolism is thick in Sangre De Mi Sangre. The idea that there are young men as humanistic and sweet as Pedro wandering the streets of New York City without even their own identity to claim is a heartbreaking one. But the reason that Sangre De Mi Sangre works is that it never dwells on the themes too long. This is not a preachy film about problems with immigration or helping the homeless. It's a character study and Zella shows his most talent in the way he completely develops four very distinct characters to study. All four of the leads feel real, which makes a few of the more unusual coincidences of the third act more tolerable. I do think there is at least one too many chance encounters, the one that sets the climax in motion, but it's forgivable with so many other things about the movie to recommend. Sangre De Mi Sangre is a heartbreaker about people on the run, the difficulty of making connections in a strange world, and even fate. There's an almost Greek tragedy level to the screenplay that is truly fascinating. It's a very good film that borders on great and if you're anywhere near where it's playing, track it down.