Cannes Film Festival 1978–The independent filmmaker Robert Young moved from documentaries to features with Alambrista! (The Illegal), winner of the Camera d’Or (Prize for first film) at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
The movie offers a vividly realistic view of illegal farm laborers in this touching, insightful tale of Roberto (Domingo Ambriz), a Mexican boy who illegally crosses the border seeking work to support his family.
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Alambrista! is a gentle, unsentimental film, which follows Roberto as he discovers that California is decidedly not the promised land of opportunity. The cinema verité (hand-held camera, expressive close-ups) shifts smoothly from the lyrical to the nightmarish.
Young captures Roberto’s status as an outsider, chronicling his futile pilgrimage from Mexico and the events that inevitably force him to return home. Speaking no English, Roberto gets an education. Joe (Trinidad Silva) gives him a lesson in 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.
Married in Mexico, with his mother nearby, Roberto hasn’t fully detached himself from a society of women, but 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)
