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

From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard (Dheepan, Rust and Bone) comes this audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this Mexican odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women, each pursuing their own kind of happiness.

The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. Written and directed by Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), the double Cannes-winning film also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Édgar Ramírez.

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

Two men on a motorcycle. Shots are fired. Another man is left dead on the ground: Paula’s father has been assassinated. The authorities offer no answers. With revenge in her sights, Paula, an art student, desperately sets out to find her father’s killer. By chance, she meets him—dancing, smiling—at a nightclub. The two grow closer. His name is Jesús. He wants to be with her. She wants to kill him.

Synopsis

After surviving a lightning strike during a terrifying countryside storm, Ada is reeling. As she recovers physically from the blast, a series of strange visual and auditory hallucinations begin to plague her. Searching for answers, she joins a support group for lighting strike survivors led by a charismatic, controversial doctor. Will his unconventional methods lead to a cure?