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Gerardo is the victim of a brutal homophobic attack on the streets of Puebla. Iván may be our initial point of entry into this story, but this is Gerardo’s story as well, and Ewing tactfully weaves his tale with Iván’s, especially after the latter departs and finally makes it to New York.
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That push and pull between keeping his relationship a secret and his own professional dreams drive Iván to pack up his bags, leave everything behind and, alongside Sandra, make that perilous trek to the border. Their relationship is a tad tentative at first, in part because Iván has yet to fully come out and is afraid his ex-wife will keep him from seeing his son if she ever finds out. Their hesitant flirting, their long conversations and their first kiss are captured by cinematographer Juan Pablo Ramírez in a mix of sensuous long shots and tight close-ups, as water drips around them inside that bar, and when they say their goodbyes as the sun rises. Turned down once again by the restaurant owner after asking about a potential opening in the kitchen, Iván follows childhood friend Sandra’s (played by Mexican actress and stand-up comedian Michelle Rodríguez) advice to accompany her to an underground gay bar, where he meets Gerardo (Christian Vázquez), a teaching assistant at the university. The script by Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga, based on the experiences of chef Iván García and his partner Gerardo Zabaleta, is deceitfully linear its structure replicates the way memory works: how we remember things, and how we even picture ourselves in those memories. These first few minutes set the template for what her film is truly about: a reverie about memory and the people and places and things we leave behind as migrants, as well as the sacrifices made and the prejudices encountered at home and abroad. So far, a rather conventional opening.īut documentary filmmaker Heidi Ewing’s first fiction film, I Carry You with Me (Te llevo conmigo), is anything but your traditional miserabilist film about the Latin American immigrant experience. We are then introduced to that younger self, Iván (Armando Espitia), in 1994, cleaning floors and bathrooms and fixing toilets at a restaurant in Puebla, even though he has a certificate from a culinary institute. In a Spanish voice-over, he talks about waking up drenched in sweat from a dream in which his younger self flew back to Mexico, even though he can no longer return.
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Riera, Movies & TV Editor at MANOĪ middle-aged man sits alone in a New York subway train. This review was originally published by MANOīy Alejandro A. Scene from ‘I Carry You with me’ (Te llevo conmigo)