"Bleak Street brims with incident, atmosphere, and character … its insistent humour, oneiric slippage, and stylistic mischief all recall Buñuel." – Cinema Scope

Little Death and Little AK work as micro-luchadores, mascots for their taller lucha wrestler equivalents. They never take off their masks, not even to drink, smoke, or have sex. To celebrate a big win, the brothers opt to spend a night with two prostitutes, Adela and Dora. Things take a very dark turn when Adela and Dora's desperation for money causes them to make a terrible mistake.

The latest film from Mexican auteur Arturo Ripstein (Virgin of Lust, MIFF 2003; The Ruination of Men, MIFF 2001), Bleak Street is based on real events of 2009 wherein two mini-estrella wrestling brothers were murdered in a robbery gone tragically wrong. Dreamlike and surreal, Bleak Street plunges the viewer into the seedy underbelly of Mexico, shot in crisp, striking black and white. Luis Buñuel, a friend and early mentor of Ripstein, is a clear influence not only in visual style, but also in the way Ripstein directs with the aim to give voice to the lower class, showing empathy rather than romanticising their struggles.

"Bleak Street is a profoundly singular experience. One that is as vivid as it is genuinely brooding, a mood piece of the highest order ... a breathtaking visual achievement." – CriterionCast