Sundance 2007

Padre Nuestro

Juan (Armando Hernandez) isn't trying to get north, but he flees tough guys in a Mexican border town, then accidentally ends up hiding with a group being surreptitiously trucked to New York. He wins the confidence of fellow passenger Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola) and listens to the lad's hopes to reunite with the wealthy restaurateur father he's never met and give him a letter from his dead mother.

When the human cargo is unloaded, naive Pedro finds his bags and personal belongings gone: Juan clearly has stolen them. It's not long before Juan is able to track down Pedro's father, Diego (Mexican film vet Jesus Ochoa), but rather than finding what he assumed would be a sugar daddy, Diego is a poor dishwasher in an Italian restaurant kitchen. He's also a cold-hearted jerk. It takes much longer than it did with Pedro for Juan to win over Diego.

Zalla's screenplay produces a chain of mostly unlikely obstacles that keep Pedro from tacking down Diego until the inevitable third-act confrontation. While Juan scours Diego's dank dwelling for a supposed hidden stash of cash, Pedro is wrapped up in the sordid affairs of street hustler Magda (Paola Mendoza) and can't seem to accomplish what would seem the not-impossible task of finding Diego's restaurant.

Were events not so contrived, the film might work up a froth of psychological pressure and thrills, creating an interesting emotional setting for a man who had long assumed his role as a father was ancient history. Ochoa is such a masterful actor that he makes things fairly interesting despite the script, with Hernandez and Espindola well-cast as two young men operating by different moral compasses.

New York looks menacing under the eye of lenser Igor Martinovic, and the concept of "urban jungle" defines the pic's design and production elements.

Camera (The Lab at Postworks New York, color, DV), Igor Martinovic; editor, Aaron Yanes; music, Brian Cullman; production designer, Tommaso Ortino; costume designer, Taphat Tawil; sound, Tammy Douglas; supervising sound editor, David Leonard; line producer, Louise Lovegrove; associate producers, Anthony Aufiero, Ellyn Long Marshall, Maria E. Nelson, Kaer Vanice CQ; casting, Nelson, Marshall (New York), Manuel Teil (Mexico). Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 23 , 2007. Running time: 111 MIN.
(Spanish, English dialogue)