Chop Shop
Starring: Alejandro Polanco, Isamar Gonzalez, Rob Sowulski, Carlos Zapata
Director: Ramin Bahrani
The film: Having made his directorial debut - and an award-winning one at that - with Man Push Cart, a story about a Pakistani immigrant running a coffee-and-doughnuts cart in central Manhattan, Ramin Bahrani's mission to cast light on the plight of marginalised New Yorkers continues with Chop Shop.
The story, which revolves around a Latino street orphan's rugged determination to improve his life - and his wayward elder sister's - by toiling endlessly as an apprentice mechanic in one of the Big Apple's grittiest areas, boasts electric performances from an amateur cast.
Like Man Push Cart, which won first-time actor Ahmad Razvi a string of international awards, Chop Shop is a stunning film that reflects the heartbreak of America's disenfranchised urban underclass.
The film's title - slang for a car repair shop specialising in hacking up mostly stolen vehicles and reselling the spare parts - is set in Willets Point, a deteriorating stretch of junk yards and sleazy car repair dealers in an area of Queens known as the Iron Triangle.
