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Leo (Christopher Bustos) and Emma (Daniela Vidaurre) had led a happy
life in their hometown back in Mexico - but then Emma got pregnant, and to
provide her with only the best of opportunities, they decided to move to
the US with Emma still carrying, to make their daughter Luciana a US
citizen by birth. Luciana (Lusiana Elisa Quinonez) is now about five
years old, and she spends most of her time in daycare as for her parents,
the US of A hasn't turned out to be the land of milk and honey after all,
as they both work in minimum wage jobs, he as farmhand, she as dishwasher
at a restaurants, as being illegal immigrants they can't be choosy about
what line of profession. And still, they can only afford to live in a
trailer, and are subject to racial abuse. Rather naturally, their
circumstances frustrate both of them, and it isn't long until Leo takes to
drinking - much to Emma's dismay, and it's not long before things
escalate, ending in utter tragedy ... A rather powerful little
film that works quite as well as it doesn't even try to give any
over-generalized answers, instead puts its emphasis on its very individual
story - and this lack of trying to hammer home a very overt message makes
the film feel all the more real, which is of course only helped by a
no-frills directorial effort that nevertheless captures the emotional
landscapes of the film's protagonists in its pictures. And the two leads
deliver solid performances and have just the right chemistry to make their
relationship to one another that goes through heaven and hell work - which
all results in pretty impressive low budget cinema.
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