This film is currently unavailable
Chop Shop
Hopeful and heartbreaking second feature from the director of Man Push Cart.
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Overview
Chop Shop sees talented young writer-director Ramin Bahrani, who made his mark with multiple award-winner Man Push Cart, adding another chapter to his chronicle of life on America’s margins. This time the setting is a neighbourhood in Queens, NY known as the 'Iron Triangle', a jumble of auto repair shops and junkyards. It's an extraordinary looking place, with its rows of shacks and rubbish dumps, captured here in all its noise and chaos. Ironically, it sits in the shadow of Shea Stadium, site of so many American dreams. Like many of the immigrants and displaced people there, 12-year-old Alejandro hustles to earn a living, whilst looking out for his older but far less responsible sister. His own dreams of a better life for both of them are ambitious, but hard to fulfil when real life keeps getting in the way.
Working again with non-professional actors and shooting verité style bring a sense of immediacy and intimacy to Bahrani's sensitively realised film, hopeful and heartbreaking by turn.
Related
Air Doll Air Doll
Drama 2009 116 mins Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
A life-size blow-up doll comes to life and falls in love with a video store clerk in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s haunting, melancholy meditation on urban alienation.
Floating Skyscrapers Floating Skyscrapers
Drama 2013 89 mins Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Hailed as ‘Poland’s first LGBT film’, Tomasz Wasilewski’s striking drama follows a champion swimmer whose gay relationship causes ripples.
Sweet Sue Sweet Sue
Comedy 2022 100 mins Director: Leo Leigh
Bleakly funny comedy-drama starring Maggie O’Neill as a middle-aged woman who begins dating a mysterious biker, whose flamboyant son is a social media influencer.
El Sur El Sur
Drama 1983 94 mins Director: Víctor Erice
Victor Erice’s second masterpiece, following The Spirit of the Beehive, is a rarely seen meditation on memory, deception and Spain’s 20th-century history.
20,000 Species of Bees 20,000 Species of Bees
Drama 2023 128 mins Director: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Sofía Otero ignites this warm, rich Spanish drama woven from a child’s probing question: who am I?
Undertow Undertow
Drama 2009 101 mins Director: Javier Fuentes-León
Miguel, a young married fisherman with a baby on the way, struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions.
Air Doll Air Doll
Drama 2009 116 mins Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
A life-size blow-up doll comes to life and falls in love with a video store clerk in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s haunting, melancholy meditation on urban alienation.
Floating Skyscrapers Floating Skyscrapers
Drama 2013 89 mins Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Hailed as ‘Poland’s first LGBT film’, Tomasz Wasilewski’s striking drama follows a champion swimmer whose gay relationship causes ripples.
Sweet Sue Sweet Sue
Comedy 2022 100 mins Director: Leo Leigh
Bleakly funny comedy-drama starring Maggie O’Neill as a middle-aged woman who begins dating a mysterious biker, whose flamboyant son is a social media influencer.
Bande à part Bande à part
Crime 1964 95 mins Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the 1940s, executed with typically Gallic cool.
El Sur El Sur
Drama 1983 94 mins Director: Víctor Erice
Victor Erice’s second masterpiece, following The Spirit of the Beehive, is a rarely seen meditation on memory, deception and Spain’s 20th-century history.
Of Time and the City Of Time and the City
Documentary 2008 74 mins Director: Terence Davies
Brilliantly mixing archive film and music, Liverpool-born director Terence Davies reflects with wit and wisdom on a times of change, for good or ill