Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival (under its previous title: Padre
Nuestro), SANGRE DE MI SANGRE is a suspenseful drama about
stolen identity, family relationships and the ambiguous
nature of morality. At the heart of the film lies the
visceral labyrinth of deceptions and frustrated hopes that
is New York City – a place where most people are outsiders
and family becomes defined by relationships not based on
blood, but on shared experience and the need for connection.
JUAN and PEDRO meet in the back of a tractor-trailer filled
with undocumented Mexican immigrants headed for New York
City. Pedro shows Juan a sealed letter that his mother, now
dead, has given him – an introduction to the father he never
knew. He brags to his new friend that his father, DIEGO –
who left Mexico for New York many years before – has become
a wealthy restaurant owner and will surely rejoice at the
arrival of the son he had always wanted. Juan doubts Pedro’s
confidence and challenges his expectations. Juan’s father
left him when he was four with two things: a switchblade and
the scar it made on his chest.
When the truck lands in Brooklyn, Pedro wakes to find
himself alone and his belongings, including the letter with
his father’s address, stolen. He is cast onto the street and
- unable to speak the language - lost in an unknown city.
Juan, meanwhile, shows up at Diego’s door with the letter –
claiming to be the old man’s long lost son, Pedro.
Diego, who is not a wealthy restaurant owner, but a miserly
dishwasher who squirrels away every dollar he makes,
immediately rejects him. Juan persists, contriving to win
his “father’s” favor by maintaining the image of the
hardworking, devoted son. Yet rather than working during the
day for money, as he claims he is doing, Juan prowls about
Diego’s apartment, searching for the hidden stash.
In the meantime, Pedro meets MAGDA, a Spanish-speaking
street-urchin who offers to help but repeatedly exploits his
desire to find his father. Pedro must choose whether to
abide by his principles or heed Magda’s ruthless logic of
the street and “look out for number one.” With every day
that Pedro gets closer to finding Diego, Juan gets closer to
finding the money. Yet along the way, both boys find
something they weren’t looking for… They find something
they need…
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