A film from some years ago about a single mother forced to take drastic steps when her husband gambles away her food money and shoots off. Ray (very competent Melissa Leo) works at a supermarket on the Canadian border but doesn’t get enough money to support her two boys. 
The older wants to leave school and help her but she doesn’t want that. She stumbles across Lila, a Mohawk Indian of the region and ends up smuggling people across the border with her
, which allows her some leeway with the money. Trouble is the law is after them 
and their own desperation in dealing with the underworld of smugglers leads them to take some risky decisions.
A saddish film showing the lengths people sometimes have to go to in order to survive.
Featuring an unrecognizable Misty Upham, the Native American actress who passed away in 2014.
★★★+
Chilean actor Alfredo Castro does another of his rather creepy performances as the intimacy avoiding dental technician, who picks up boys to jerk off to.
When he meets Elder, it looks like it will be a disaster as Elder is a homophobic little thug. But somehow the relationship endures and both men discover facets of themselves that they did not know. Set against the backdrop of crime and poverty-ridden Caracas, the story is a sad and poignant one. 
Luis Silva creates a credible character in Elder
too and these two actors add considerable weight to this small story.
struggling to get to know his father who has been absent in jail. The father was a top boxer but has returned from prison in poor shape. He does not take it kindly that his son is gay, is a hairdresser and aspires to be a drag queen, but the problem is that without the son’s income they don’t eat.
It is a sad if picturesque scene and the Cubans continue with the difficulties that they always have had despite the melting of the US-Cuba diplomacy. The story of this film is nothing special, what attracts more is the context and the fact that some top actors breathe life into the film. Jorge Perugorria is excellent as the father
and Luis Alberto Garcia shines as the motherly drag queen, Mama. The musical items and choice of diva songs are good too. A sad but convincing little story made more notable by the understanding of the Irish of the situation Cuba faces.
but still willing to try again. Atli Oskar Fjalarsson
, who I discovered in Jitters and already felt was a major actor is Ari and conveys all the frustrations, loneliness and courage he needs to face this difficult situation which includes substance abuse and physical abuse.
He has a capacity to express deep and conflicting ideas while remaining an innocent. Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson as his father is equally impressive, an unlikeable character in many ways but one who has suffered and continues to suffer.
You wonder why Ari’s mother ever married him but life is like that. All the characters are well rounded, from the grandmother to the local teens to the factory workers and the good time women who befriend Gunnar. And through all the challenges runs a vein of humour that is indeed necessary, even though this film falls firmly into the Nordic Blues camp forged by Bergman.
The beautiful cold landscape (and it’s set in summer) is always present but doesn’t overwhelm and Sophia Olsson’s photography is also first rate. Runarsson says he was aiming for something of poetic reality and he has indeed achieved it. Moments such as Ari singing at his grandmother’s funeral prove this. To be seen again, always a great complement for me.
passionfilm 