Today’s movie is from director Paola Mendoza who tells the story of her mother’s first summer in the U.S. She stars as the main actor (as her mother), and also is the writer and director of the movie.
It’s low-budget, but low-budget in Between Us’ case didn’t mean any less attention for detail. For the roles of the two kids, Mendoza interviewed over 300 boys and 200 girls before landing on the perfect pair to play her and her brother.
Between Us (Entre Nos)
On Amazon Prime U.S. and Canada. In Spanish.
A mother and her two children move from Colombia to Queens, New York to join the father. Once there, he abandons them and moves to Miami.
With no family to fall back on, barely speaking English, an inexistent social welfare system and two little kids who require care; the mother quickly runs out of options. At first, she tries to sell empanadas in the street, then tries to become a temporary worker, but a mixture of obstacles keeps getting in the way.
Entre Nos is about the precariousness of the immigrant experience: about how quickly things can go wrong. But it’s also about how survival instincts and motherly love can stand in the face of complete desperation.
Alternatives you might like
Warehoused on Netflix is another Spanish-language low-budget movie. It’s about two workers in a warehouse where nothing seems to happen.
Divines also on Netflix is a coming-of-age story of two girls from an immigrant background in a poor Paris suburb.
Talk on Friday,
Bilal