Cannes Film Festival 1978–The independent filmmaker Robert Young moved from documentaries to features with Alambrista! (The Illegal), winner of the first Camera d’Or ever given (Prize for best first film) at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
The movie offers a vividly realistic view of illegal farm laborers in its touching, insightful tale of Roberto (Domingo Ambriz), a Mexican boy who illegally crosses the border seeking work to support his family.
A gentle yet unsentimental film, Alambrista! follows Roberto as he necessarily and painfully discovers that California is decidedly not the promised land of opportunity he had hoped for.
The cinema verité (hand-held camera, expressive close-ups) shifts smoothly from boy’s lyrical experiences to his more nightmarish ones.
Young captures Roberto’s status as an outsider, chronicling his futile pilgrimage from Mexico, and then the events that inevitably force him to return home.
Speaking no English, Roberto gets an education. Joe (Trinidad Silva) instructs him with a series of lessons about how to march into a cafe, cross his legs like a gringo, order a gringo’s breakfast (“what you really want is tortillas and beans, but here you order ham-eggs-coffee”) and flirt with the waitress.
Back home, Roberto gets married, with his mother nearby. While Roberto hasn’t fully detached himself from a society of women, he now must adjust to the company of men.
Credits
Running Time: 110 minutes
Distributor: First Run
Production: Filmhaus Productions
Director: Robert M. Young
Producers: Michael Hausman, Irwin W. Young
Screenplay: Robert M. Young
Camera Robert M. Young
Editor: Edward Beyer
Production Design: Lilly Kilvert
Release date: October 16, 1977
Cast
Roberto (Domingo Ambriz)
Joe (Trinidad Silva)
Sharon (Linda Gillin)
Roberto’s wife (Ludevina Mendez Salazar)
Roberto’s mother (Maria Guadalupe Chavez)
