Sangre de Mi Sangre: An Identity Politics Thriller From: villagevoice.com

How to turn a social problem into an existential drama? Sangre de Mi Sangre (Blood of My Blood), a first feature written and directed by Columbia-educated Christopher Zalla, makes an end run around liberal shibboleth by treating the situation of Mexican illegals as the subject for a miserabilist thriller—complete with issues of lost and found identity.

On the whole, Zalla’s strategy pays off. Slick and energetic as it is, Sangre de Mi Sangre won the grand-jury prize (as Padre Nuestro) at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival—a first for a Spanish-language feature. Arty but elemental, it subsequently found its niche in last year’s “New Directors” series, as one of the more visceral movies pondering the new globalization. Indeed, Sangre de Mi Sangre asks to be considered as a Mexican movie, although it was made in the U.S.A.”*

Leave a Reply