We Are What We Are
Somos lo que hay
Mexico, 2010, 90 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Crime, Horror, Mexican, Thriller
Language: Spanish English Sub-Titles
Digital presentation - The old cliché about a hard-working dad who brings home the bacon gets a disturbing new twist in Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau’s slow boil of a first feature.
It begins with the death of an older, nondescript gentleman in a busy public walkway; after cleaning up his blood and removing his body, the police are in no rush to identify him in a city of anonymous millions. By the family he has left behind, however, he is desperately missed: three teenagers and a loyal wife have suddenly been sent into a tailspin. As we soon learn, this quartet lives by a set of very strict, cannibalistic rites that not only guide their daily activities but nourish them as well—and Papa was the only one who had mastered the rituals of hunting and preparation that must now be performed by the oldest child, Alfredo. His grieving mother and younger brother Julian—sociopathic even by the standards of this clan—initially object. But their survival depends on Alfredo’s ability to pull himself up his bootstraps, head out into Mexico City’s bustling streets and make the most of his dark inheritance.
With creepily quiet performances by the leads (including Paulina Gaitan of Sin Nombre, who plays daughter Sabina), Grau’s debut simmers with dread and fear as it reaches its shockingly visceral climax.
DIRECTOR: Jorge Michel Grau
Producer: Nicolás Celis
Editor: Rodrigo Rios
Screenwriter: Jorge Michel Grau
Cinematographer: Santiago Sanchez
Principal Cast: Paulina Gaitan, Adrián Aguirre, Miriam Balderas, Francisco Barreiro, Carmen Beato
US Distributor: IFC Films
Official Film Website
Also by this director
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2012
,
125 min.
MUST END Thursday, March 14th at the Sie FilmCenter
Digital presentation - From the directors of
House of the Devil, Hobo with a Shotgun, A Serbian Film, Tokyo Gore Police, You’re Next, and many more comes the genre event of 2012.
Twenty-six directors. Twenty-six ways to die. ...
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