Synopsis

Veteran filmmaker Errol Morris makes his most powerful political documentary in years, combining the effective investigative stories of Standard Operating Procedure and The Thin Blue Line with the cautionary tales of American Dharma and The Fog of War. His target: the Trump administration’s controversial 2018 policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the Mexico-US border.

The film lays out in detail how Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions, and Kirstjen Nielsen pursued the program with little regard for human rights, morality, or constitutional law. It also introduces characters like Captain Jonathan White at the Office for Refugee Resettlement, who becomes the film’s central compelling figure thanks to his determination to intervene and protect the well-being of those in his care. Filled with sobering indignation and disturbing revelations, Separated offers a riveting exposé of the Trump administration’s unjust programs and the brave people on both sides of the political divide trying to hold them at bay.

Synopsis

Salvador and his younger brothers Oliver and Benjamin live in an isolated house in the woods. Together in a post-apocalyptic landscape, they’ve established grim routines of survival, including hunting in the forest to feed something sinister and ravenously hungry that’s hiding in their basement. As the many dangers of their dystopian world begin to close in around them, the young brothers must fight to protect the only thing they have left: their family.

Párvulos is not your typical post-apocalyptic epic, but an absolute roller coaster of genre — a dark, gruesome, yet surprisingly sincere coming-of-age tale set in a world devoid of childhood innocence where family is the only hope for the future.

Synopsis

Tensions are already running high as the day begins in a bustling Times Square kitchen — money is missing from the till, and suspicions have fallen on line cook Pedro (Raúl Briones). A zealous dreamer with a knack for making trouble, Pedro is on thin ice. His tumultuous affair with Julia (Rooney Mara), a waitress battling her own demons, is no secret. But today, their interpersonal chaos begins to seep into the relentless pace of the kitchen as its workers grind to feed the hungry maws of the dining room’s tourists. As Pedro spirals out of control, he threatens to take the whole kitchen down with him.

Alonso Ruizpalacios (A Cop Movie, 2021) returns to the Festival with a stylistically dazzling, darkly poignant tribute to the often invisible immigrants whose unrelenting work in kitchens feeds this country’s voracious appetite. La Cocina is a daring, tragic ode to the folly of the American Dream.

Synopsis

In this audacious crime drama from celebrated Mexican actor-turned-director Gael García Bernal (Déficit), lifelong friends Cagalera and Moloteco turn to violence and lawlessness to buy their way out of their hard-scrabble Mexico City neighborhood. Hoping to scrape together enough cash to join a union that holds the promise of steady work, the amateur criminals graduate from petty theft to hostage-taking. But their escapades land the teens in desperate circumstances, both darkly humorous and fraught with danger.

Synopsis

Eve is invisible—as a maid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, it’s her job to stay out of sight. Long hours leave her dreaming of a better life for her family as she attempts to rise above workplace hierarchies. Set entirely within the hermetic confines of the hotel, The Chambermaid is both a deeply moving character study and a frankly observed examination of social class.