Blood of My Blood

aka Sangre de Mi Sangre
(originally titled Padre Nuestro)
Christopher Zalla, Mexico, 2007 (8.2*)
Grand Jury Prize, Sundance

This is a gripping suspense story of a illegal teenaged immigrant to the U.S., Pedro (Jorge Adrián Espíndola), who heads to New York in a semi-trailer with other illegals to find his father (Jesús Ochoa), armed with a letter sent to his mother and a locket with their picture as proof that he is his father's son. Unfortunately, he befriends a criminal in the trailer, Juan (Armando Hernández) who steals these at the end of the trip, and who begins to pose as the son himself, finding the father through the address on the letter.

The illiterate Pedro ends up lost on the streets, and enlists the help of a drug addicted prostitute, Magda (Paola Mendoza), who helps him, but of course for money, which Pedro doesn't have, as that was stolen also. The film follows the stories of all four, which are eventually interconnected through the father.

This gritty streetwise story, perhaps a bit overlong, has an excellent screenplay, realistic cinematography, a unique music score, and the acting is right on target - one feels that the actors are pulled from real life and not film auditions. This is unlike most U.S. films, since small realistic endeavors like this won't make enough money to get filmed here, yet it's similar in style to early Scorsese, notably Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.

A nominee of several awards at film festivals, and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival.