Padre Nuestro won the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic feature. This is the story of two Mexican illegal immigrants who sneak into New York. One is going to meet his father he hasn’t met, while the other is simply trying to get away from all the trouble he brings upon himself. The second boy then steals the identity of the first and poses as the son of someone that is not his father. The other boy survives on the street, befriending a homeless woman, and tries to find his father, while being forced to do low pay jobs and sexual favours to survive. What makes this film so unique is that it is a foreign language film set in New York. Unlike most films like this, the social oppression of illegal immigrants is in the backdrop of this film. The storyline takes a much larger role than any political statement. The end result is a compelling story about interlocking characters, leading to the climax with their final interaction.
Padre Nuestro was a very intriguing film, but it did not deserve to win best dramatic feature. There were several other films that were more deserving than this one. This film once because of its setting and story. Letters from Iwo Jima provided much the same response—telling the same story from a different perspective. And like Letters from Iwo Jima, Padre Nuestro was not a truly engaging and strong story but was just different enough to cause people to take notice.
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