Sangre De Mi Sangre (2008)

Los Angeles Times
"Christopher Zalla's SANGRE DE MI SANGRE is a great, impassioned immigrant odyssey....Intricately and imaginatively structured, building to a powerful climax of complex irony." 05/23/2008

The Onion A.V. Club 6 of 10
Crossing the U.S. border illegally comes with its own unique paranoia and feelings of "otherness," but once immigrants arrive in the States, they can often find strength in numbers, by nestling into one of the cities-within-cities that exist apart from the American mainstream. In Christopher Zalla's debut film, Sangre De Mi Sangre, two young Mexicans make their way to New York City and promptly get swallowed up by a thicket of ghettos, bodegas, vacant lots, and job sites. One of the boys, Armando Hernandez, tries to get an edge by assuming the identity of the other boy, Jorge Adrian Espindola, so he can con his way into the home of Espindola's father, who's rumored to be a wealthy restaurant owner. In actuality, the dad (played by Jesus Ochoa) works in a kitchen, and does odd jobs to make ends meet--not all of them above-board. And while Ochoa is Espindola's father, he doesn't remember the boy's mother all that well, because she was a one-night-stand that occurred under morally questionable conditions...Sangre De Mi Sangre edges too close to leaden symbolism with its consideration of absent "fathers" and their lapses. (Zalla seems to be implying that if there is a God, He's kind of a loser.) And though the near-constant hand-held close-ups clearly emphasize the confined spaces of New York's immigrant community, they also lock the movie into a single mode and mood. Sangre De Mi Sangre is an exercise in misery, painting the immigrant life in America as every bit as bleak as what they were trying to escape...The film seems even more one-note when compared to the recent indie feature Chop Shop, which also follows young immigrant hustlers in NYC, yet takes the time to provide a fuller picture of the city and its opportunities. Zalla prefers to wallow in the dead-end, an approach that's initially powerful, then numbing. - Noel Murray
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Sangre de Mi Sangre," the grand jury prize winner at Sundance 2007, gives us wonderful actors struggling in a tangled web of writing. The film is built around two relationships, both touching, both emotionally true...But time after time, we're brought up short by absolute impossibilities and gaping improbabilities in the story. To give one example: A newly arrived Mexican immigrant struggles to find his father in New York City. All he has is the 17-year-old information that the man works in (or perhaps owns) a French restaurant. Working his way through the Yellow Pages listings of French restaurants, he successfully finds his father. Uh-huh...At this point you're rolling your eyes and wondering how the grand jury at Sundance, or any jury, could have awarded such a story its prize. But you would have missed what makes the film special: the relationships. Juan does such a good job of playing Pedro that he convinces Diego he really is his son. And the real Pedro gets a quick series of lessons in surviving the mean streets, and comes to care about (not for) Magda...The truest of these relationships, paradoxically, is the false one. Jesus Ochoa, a much-honored Mexican actor, creates a heartbreaking performance as Diego, the "old man," as Juan always calls him. He was once in love in Mexico, left, sent money home, returned, and then (after apparently fathering the real Pedro), returned to New York 17 years ago. Maybe he told his wife he owned a restaurant, or maybe she lied about that to her son. No matter...Pedro, Juan and Diego have paths that must eventually cross, we think. See for yourself if they do...The story's conclusion is rushed and arbitrary, but so perhaps it has to be. "Sangre de Mi Sangre" ("Blood of My Blood") is a film that stumbles through a maddening screenplay but nevertheless generates true emotional energy. - Roger Ebert