Here and There

The ‘here’ is a backwater community in rural Mexico, the ‘there’ is the looming behemoth of the US of A, a proximity which spells doom for ordinary Mexicans in this sobering, low-key drama. Having sent back money from New York, labourer Pedro returns home to his wife and daughters with dreams of making it in a band, an outlook soon made to look naïve by the unsparing realities of the local economy and healthcare system. Antonio Méndez Esparza’s début feature, which is shaped around believable performances from non-professionals, offers a lucid, unsentimental analysis, but the material is perhaps too saddeningly familiar to strike real sparks.