Emilio (2008)

'Emilio' is the soulful tale of a young man (19 years) who leaves his village in Mexico looking for his kidnapped sister. His journey leads him to Los Angeles, where we see the city through the eyes of a penniless illegal immigrant on a desperate quest. The City of Angels itself becomes in a sense the second character of this movie as Emilio's needle-in-a-haystack search takes him through the gritty contrasts of Skid Row, East L.A., Echo Park, Watts, Torrance, Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, and the West Hollywood hills. The panorama of characters he encounters include Mexican day laborers, drug dealers, transients, skateboarders, disco queens, actors, and upwardly mobile socialites constituting at once a searing social criticism and celebration of a city. As it moves towards its inexorable conclusion, this coming of age story comes into its own above all as an heroic portrait of determination.