It’s morning in a small seaside town on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, and teenager Juan (Diego Cataño) has just driven his family’s tomato-red Toyota into a light pole on an empty street. As he sets off on foot to seek help, the immobilized car becomes a vehicle for delivering Juan into the hands of a cast of local characters and their small but significant routines. His interactions with a paranoid old mechanic devoted to his almost-human pet dog, a young mother with dreams of punk rock stardom and a teenage mechanic obsessed with kung fu glow with a droll observational humor reminiscent of director Fernando Eimbcke’s much-lauded first feature, Duck Season (SFIFF 2005). As Juan is drawn into their lives and more about a loss at the center of his family is revealed, the film’s emotional undercurrent deepens considerably. Cinematographer Alexis Zabé’s minimal camera setups and eloquently held shots create a rich field for exploring the characters’ interior states and the film’s insistence on the here-and-now ground its meditation on escape, hope and connection. The cast’s natural interplay is utterly convincing, the film’s quiet humor earned and its sweet, compassionate humanity is deeply moving. —Steve Mockus  (80 min, Film Movement)

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Written by Paula Markovitch, Fernando Eimbcke. Photographed by Alexis Zabé. With Diego Cataño, Héctor Herrera, Daniela Valentine.