City of Dreams

Jesús doesn't speak. He introduces himself by holding up his hand, which has his name tattooed across it. He's 15, and he's at the centre of 'City of Dreams', the first feature written and directed by Mohit Ramchandani, a drama with the pulse of a thriller that's inspired by real events and made between the United States and Mexico.

Played by Ari Lopez, Jesús lives in Puebla and dreams of becoming a footballer, so his widowed father (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) entrusts him to Rodrigo (Francisco Denis), who promises him a place at a football camp in Los Angeles. Once they're over the border, the boy ends up locked in a sweatshop in downtown LA, sewing clothes for El Jefe (Alfredo Castro) alongside dozens of other young workers who are beaten and starved if they complain or slip up.

He leans on Elena (Renata Vaca), who was lured there with the promise of a career in design, and shares the ordeal with Carlitos (Diego Calva). Outside, a police officer, Stevens (Jason Patric), starts to suspect what's going on in the building but can't prove a thing. Ramchandani told EFE that when people hear "sweatshop" they think of China, and nobody thinks of downtown Los Angeles.

For a role with barely any dialogue, Lopez took sewing, football and English lessons, the last so he could talk to his director. The executive producers include Yalitza Aparicio, the star of 'Roma', in her first job in that role, and Luis Fonsi, who wrote the title song with Linda Perry.

It premiered at the Mammoth Film Festival in March 2023 as 'Dreamer', and Roadside Attractions put it in US cinemas on 30 August 2024 after pushing it back from April. Critics were split, and the big outlets were especially hard on it: they credited its intentions and Lopez's performance but found the characters stereotyped and the tone heavy handed, and several compared it with 'Sound of Freedom'. In the UK it can be rented or bought on Apple TV.

• Drama
• Thriller