UK, FRANCE, GERMANY, SPAIN, ITALY, SWITZERLAND – 2000 – DCP – color – 110’

Direction: Ken Loach

Screenplay: Paul Laverty

Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd

Editing: Jonathan Morris

Set design: Martin Johnson

Music: George Fenton

Costumes: Michele Michel

Cast: Pilar Padilla (Maya), Adrien Brody (Sam), Elpidia Carrillo (Rosa), Jack McGee (Bert), Monica Rivas (Simona), Frank Davila (Luis), Lillian Hurst (Anna), George Lopez (Perez)

Producers: Ulrich Felsberg, Rebecca O’Brien, Alex Reed

Production: Parallax, Alta Films, Bim, Film Four, Degeto, Arte

SINOPSIS

Maya is a young Mexican woman who arrives illegally in the United States to join her sister Rosa in Los Angeles. After escaping captivity from smugglers who are waiting in vain to be paid by Rosa, Maya manages to hide by getting a job at the same cleaning company where her sister works. The working conditions there are harsh, and workers are harassed by the boss, who pays little and wants no trouble. When Maya meets Sam, a friendly union organizer, she introduces him to the company, and despite the opposition of the owners, he manages to organize a protest that catches the attention of the media. However, for Maya, things are not so simple.

Critical Note

“Virtually no other director would think of attempting a film about the plight of non-unionised janitors in Los Angeles. (…) Loach feels spiritually dispossessed in Tinsel Town, then so do the Mexican illegal immigrants whose story he tells. It’s here that the prosaic look of the movie betrays an ethical dimension – Loach denies us a touristic spectacle the characters themselves have scant leisure to enjoy. Instead he sticks to the immediate vicinity of the steel and glass tower where the janitors work, framing them simply in anonymous windows and corridors. It may not even matter that one can’t always say where the protagonists’ alienation ends and the director’s begins.” (Peter Matthews, Sight & Sound, May 2001)

PREMI AND AWARDS

2000 Cannes Film Festival – Competition
2000 Rio de Janeiro FF: FIPRESCI Prize
2000 Santa Barbara IFF: Phoenix Prize
2000 Temecula Valley IFF: Jury Award

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