Search The Archive
A lovesick Mexican teen is lured into the volatile underground of oil bandits in this suspenseful Tribeca award winner.
Teetering on the edge of poverty, 14-year-old farmhand Lalo’s only glimpse of hope is his high-school crush Ana. But when his savings, earmarked for a romantic present, are needed for his mother’s medical bills, Lalo finds his only option is to join the huachicolero – opportunistic gangs haunting the petroleum-soaked hinterlands. Lalo is wooed by these outlaws, who tap into the pipelines of crooked corporations and dance on the edge of death every night. He soon discovers the heartbreaking truths: love is conditional and there’s no honour among thieves.
Winner of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival’s Best New Narrative Director award, Edgar Nito Arrache has made a remarkable debut that humanises the real-life cartel crisis with a gritty lens and an urgent score, amping up the tension between a corruptible youth and his treacherous guardians until it’s primed to explode.
“A powerful debut… undoubtedly one of the best Mexican films so far in 2019.” – Screen Anarchy
