PADRE NUESTRO

This Spanish film is the directorial debut of Mr. Christopher Zalla, a Kenyan-born, Spanish speaking New Yorker. It is based upon an incomplete story of betrayal & identity theft that connects with very different characters.

PADRE NUESTRO

A 17 year-old Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola) who doesn't speak english, is starving & roaming around the deserted street of Brooklyn, where the lights of Manhattan's skyscrapers behind him blinks silently. He is searching for his father whom he had never met before. He was robbed on his way to New York when he was smuggled from his native land of Mexico. He was carrying a letter of his deceased mother along with his father's address and his photo.

While searching for his father, he strikes up an uncertain relationship with Magda (Paola Mendoza) a homeless prostitute and a drug addict, who agrees to help him locate his father in exchange of money.

The film starts with Juan (Armando Hernandez), a thug, fleeing from a local gang of Mexico before boarding a truck to be smuggled to New York city where he befriends with Pedro & robbed his personal belongings of his mother's letter along with his father's photo and address on the way while he was asleep. 

Juan, the impostor

The movie cuts back and forth between the two illegal Mexican immigrants-- One who is in search of his father Diego (Jesus Ochoa) an angry dishwasher and the other who manages to reach him with the stolen identity of Pedro.

At first Diego resists himself to believe Juan's lies but slowly it comes as a challenge for Juan to convince him with his charming & cunning behavior. The slow bonding between Juan & Diego creates an emotional mood like what a father & his son could experience where as Juan is after something else.

Pedro on his battle to earn daily wages with other illegal immigrants 

On one hand, Pedro who is the real son, is experiencing harsh reality on the shabbier street of New York city depending on a prostitute where as on the other hand, Juan is after something while discovering what a father could be like.

At any moment, the truth can destroy the house of cards, that are built upon numerous lies. One can find anything on this planet if he/she searches for it.

So what the final denouement would be like?? ... can't be guessed so easily     

  

I am 20

Director S.N.S.Sastry traveled all over the country India in the year 1967 & interviewed young nation's youth to make a short non-fiction documentary "I am 20".

I am 20
S.N.S.Sastry, India 1967, 18 mins

The progress of any country can be shown in different ways & here the director speaks to those who were born in the same year when independent India was born. Some interesting questions were asked about themselves, their ambition, what they feel about the progress of the country and what is to be done for the future. Their response was the mixture of irony, sarcasm, idealism, optimism & hope.

While watching this short film, I found an interesting connection with the generation gap. Nowadays we (our generation of 20s) hesitate to bond with the thinking of our previous generation because of the huge technological progress that we have made in this tech-savy era & other current issues. 

But after watching the film, I noticed a compelling fact that our past generation in the 60's era used to think exactly the same way we use to think now. After 47 years, we encounter changes in our outer appearances with different work culture (basic things remaining the same), that makes the film as relevant today as it was then.

So the question to the Indian youth of 20s (those who have seen the film & if not, I suggest you to see it first)--

If you ask yourself the same questions that were asked in the film, what comes on your mind?