I CARRY YOU WITH ME

Director: Heidi Ewing

Mexico, United States, 111, R

Screenwriter: Heidi Ewing, Alan Page Arriaga

Cast: Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez, Michelle Rodríguez

 

“You are my dream. But you arrived a little too soon.” The first feature film by documentarian Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp) is based on the true-life journey of a Mexican chef who travels to America, though it takes him away from the man who won his heart. The film opens as Iván Garcia (Armando Espitia) is a young man in homophobic Puebla, cleaning tables and dreaming of culinary greatness. Falling head over heels for a grad student named Gerardo (Christian Vazquez), Garcia agonizes over crossing the border to follow his dream in NYC, even if it means never seeing Gerardo – or his family – again. A moving portrait of the immigrant experience, with the ethereally beautiful cinematography of Pablo Ramírez.

Winner, 2021 Sundance Film Festival NEXT Audience Award. “With mouthwatering close-ups of the food Ivan lovingly prepares, Ewing’s film, for all its painful conflicts, never stints on the lyrical pleasures of life.” Four stars Ann Hornaday, Washington Post