The new Mexican film The Golden Dream takes on a timely subject in a timeless way. It’s an expressive, touching look at four teenagers making their way from Guatemala through Mexico in an attempt to reach the United States, and it arrives in theaters at a time when the “immigration debate” has reached a fever pitch worldwide. But don’t expect incendiary topicality from The Golden Dream; this is more poetry than politics. The film starts off wordlessly, in an unnamed shantytown somewhere in Guatemala, and it’s unclear whether this is just a pit stop on a longer journey or a point of origin for three of the film’s protagonists. It may very well be the latter, but the uncertainty seems pointed: This tentative, destitute space feels in no way like home. When we first meet Juan (Brandon López), Sara (Karen Martínez), and Samuel (Carlos Chajon), they...
- 9/6/2015
- by Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
★★★☆☆ Diego Quemada-Díez’s debut film The Golden Dream (2013) so impressed at Cannes in 2013 that it received a special award and fulsome praise from Ken Loach. It tells the simple and familiar story of three young Guatemalans who decide to leave their homeland and travel through Mexico towards the 'dream' of the United States. Cocksure, but not quite as competent as he thinks he is, Juan (Brandon Lopez) is the leader, joined by Sara (Karen Martinez) who we initially see cutting her hair off and strapping it to her chest in order to transform herself into a boy called Osvaldo. Samuel (Carlos Chajon) is the third of the trio, whose previous employment required scavenging a living from giant rubbish dumps.
- 11/13/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆The ongoing search for a better life becomes a desperate fable of escape from poverty in Diego Quemada-Díez's debut feature The Golden Dream (2013). A coming of age drama of sorts as four kids up sticks and hike towards America, it never shirks away from the horrors of their journey, including kidnappings, gangs and gun-ho border patrols. Juan (Brandon López), Samuel (Carlos Chajon) and Sara (Karen Martínez), three Guatemalan teens, head northwards in search of a new start in the States. On the way they meet a young Tzotzil boy, Chauk (Rodolfo Dominguez) - who doesn't speak Spanish - but strike up a partnership with him as they wade through the dangerous world of migrant travel.
- 6/25/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Trains of Innocence: Savage Road Story to the Land of Broken Dreams
Among the vast and redundant collection of tales dealing with illegal immigration, very few can claim to be unique. Given that there are some inherent qualities to these stories, it takes an assertive new voice to infuse the subject matter with honesty. Spanish director Diego Quemada-Díez’ La Jaula de Oro, which translates to “The Golden Cage”, is perhaps the most poetic, and neo-realist film about the struggles of people searching for a better future thousands of miles away from home, and at any cost.
Trying to disguise her feminine qualities, Sara (Karen Martínez) cuts her hair binds her breasts, as she gets ready to depart from her native Guatemala with her boyfriend Juan (Brandon López) and their friend Samuel (Carlos Chajon). The trio of kids, all of them no older than 16, head out determined to make it to the United States.
Among the vast and redundant collection of tales dealing with illegal immigration, very few can claim to be unique. Given that there are some inherent qualities to these stories, it takes an assertive new voice to infuse the subject matter with honesty. Spanish director Diego Quemada-Díez’ La Jaula de Oro, which translates to “The Golden Cage”, is perhaps the most poetic, and neo-realist film about the struggles of people searching for a better future thousands of miles away from home, and at any cost.
Trying to disguise her feminine qualities, Sara (Karen Martínez) cuts her hair binds her breasts, as she gets ready to depart from her native Guatemala with her boyfriend Juan (Brandon López) and their friend Samuel (Carlos Chajon). The trio of kids, all of them no older than 16, head out determined to make it to the United States.
- 12/3/2013
- by Carlos Aguilar
- IONCINEMA.com
La Jaula de Oro
Directed by Diego Quemada-Díez
Philadelphia Film Festival
Mexico, 2013
A harrowing immigration-road movie bolstered by three beautifully natural adolescent performances frames Diego Quemada-Díez as a director to watch.
Teenagers Juan (Brandon López), Sara (Karen Martínez), and Samuel (Carlos Chajon) set out from Guatemala to cross the border into Los Angeles. Along the way they pick up Chauk (Rodolfo Domínguez), a taciturn Indian who changes the dynamics of the group as both he and Juan vie for Sara’s attention.
The four leads of Quemada-Díez’s first feature-film are startling strong, made all the more so by the fact that each young actor is making his and her screen debut. While Brandon López starts out as a one-note display of burgeoning masculinity, his Juan soon gains deeper complexities in a nuanced, painful performance from the young actor. Domínguez’s is a deceptively difficult role. Chauk’s Spanish is limited,...
Directed by Diego Quemada-Díez
Philadelphia Film Festival
Mexico, 2013
A harrowing immigration-road movie bolstered by three beautifully natural adolescent performances frames Diego Quemada-Díez as a director to watch.
Teenagers Juan (Brandon López), Sara (Karen Martínez), and Samuel (Carlos Chajon) set out from Guatemala to cross the border into Los Angeles. Along the way they pick up Chauk (Rodolfo Domínguez), a taciturn Indian who changes the dynamics of the group as both he and Juan vie for Sara’s attention.
The four leads of Quemada-Díez’s first feature-film are startling strong, made all the more so by the fact that each young actor is making his and her screen debut. While Brandon López starts out as a one-note display of burgeoning masculinity, his Juan soon gains deeper complexities in a nuanced, painful performance from the young actor. Domínguez’s is a deceptively difficult role. Chauk’s Spanish is limited,...
- 10/26/2013
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
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