Pushing the 'Chop Shop'

Who doesn’t remember Man Push Cart from last year’s Karafilm Festival? After bagging several Ciepies last year, including one for Ramin Bahrani for best direction and Ahmad Razvi for Best Male Actor in Leading Role in the same film, Man Push Cart went on to receive raving reviews and win an armful of awards in film festivals around the world.

With the Karafilm Festival postponed indefinitely this year, it’s a pity we wont be able to see Ramin Bahrani and Ahmad Razvi’s latest offering, Chop Shop, which opened at the Cannes Film Festival 2007 and which has already begun generating a positive buzz wherever it has been shown yet. It has been labeled “American independent cinema at its best” by the Daily Telegraph.Alejandro (played by Alejandro Polanco) is a 12-year-old latino boy who works in an auto-repair shop in the outskirts of Queens, New York. An adolescent living in the adult world, the highlight of his life is when his sister Isamar (played by Isamar Gonzales) moves into the tiny room he’s kept for himself. They hope to secure a brighter, more secure future for themselves by acquiring a food van and providing food to the people of the area and Alejandro begins saving for it. Reality sets in when they are confronted with everyday truths about the harshness of life that seeps into their work, relationships etc and they are often faced with making decisions that most adults would find intimidating. Chop Shop is a film about mankind’s inherent nature to survive, growing up before one’s time and yet retaining the hope that youthful innocence brings with it.

Chop Shop carries forward the essence of Man Push Cart in the sense that it focuses on communities that aren’t conventionally given much attention, on the complex interplay between aspirations, human relationships, the adversities that his protagonists face and their ability in overcoming them. It examines all that in the most humane way possible.

Ahmad Razvi is currently working on his third feature film.

– Photo: Isamar Gonzales and Alejandro Polanco in a still from the film.

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November 18, 2007