The Golden Dream

In this story El Dorado is the myth of economic opportunity in the USA! It doesn't exist in the 21st century yet the story, the myth, the legend, lives on. And our three main characters, Juan, Chauk, and Sara, learn this the hard way.

In "The Golden Dream" three native Central Americans head north to find the promise in the myth of opportunity in the USA. To achieve this goal they put their very lives on the line; for to travel as a peasant is precarious at best. They encounter danger, kindness, injury, and conflict. From the very start the three - Juan, Chauk, and Sara - must communicate between themselves and this is a problem as Chauk does not speak Spanish.

This film is beautifully photographed, has minimal dialog, and the three travelers capture your heart and hopes. The story of their traveling together will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what their next danger will be and will they make it? Juan learns first had how cruel and false the myth is. But at movies end you the viewer are left to decide for yourself if Juan found his reward or does he feel lost, lonely, and forgotten.

This is easily one of those must see films because it is both beautiful to see yet disturbing to comprehend how immigrants are willing to suffer danger and death to find the elusive American dream.

At the recently concluded Mumbai Film Festival, I had the pleasure of watching this brilliant & moving homage to the treacherous journey thousands of Guatemalan immigrants undertake from their home country into "The Golden Cage", i.e. USA, in search of a better life.

Shot in a hand-held documentary-style, the movie gallops at a steady pace without staggering or slowing down too much. It finishes well below two hours, but the complications of the journey and the character experiences make it feel a lot longer than its running time. Maybe its because it is a brilliant road movie with so much happening. Watching these kids whose journey and eventual struggles I soon became an intimate part of, made me feel as though I was living this adventure as it unfolds, traveling beside these children on a train, with the afternoon sun mercilessly blazing into my eyes, my face dried up by the dust in the wind, hair-blowing wildly, as I peer at the ever-changing countryside, with fellow-wayfarers. I felt that way because of how intimately the camera lets us into their lives.

Juan, Samuel, Sara (a girl pretending to be a boy for the journey) and I, the viewer (as the intimate witness behind the camera), begin a journey at Guatemala which we will end in the US. Getting to the US is the only consistent plan, the aim that binds us together; for the rest of the story is like an account of a leaf on a stream; randomly tossed and turned about by the currents of life. We know we'll get there; but we don't know in what condition: Here I lose a friend, there I make a friend; here I dance in a loving crowd, there I am alone in my misery; here I hunt for food, there I'm the object of someone's hunt; here I hitch a train ride, there I run on golden fields. In this uncertain wilderness, yesterday's rival can be today's friend, and characters who disappear from our lives create a haunting presence. In the end, the long journey takes its toll. This is a road movie – yet it is more. It is poetry.

There are great cerebral filmmakers who make you ponder about the nature of Existence (Bergman, Tarkovsky etc); then there are those who draw you into their story in a way that you intimately experience the character's existence and share his world-view. With this impressive debut, Diego Quemada-Diez shows streaks in that second, rare breed; of being not necessarily a cerebral filmmaker, but more of a poet or artist and filling the canvas with strokes of 'feel', and not 'reason'. Diego spends much of the reel time cataloging what these little insignificant lives do – these little dots on the map that flitter about the earth from here to there going seemingly nowhere, affected by the random turns of life; but through the length of the film, he lets us know them personally, and that gives these unknown lives and their unsung stories a soul. On knowing them, we discover they have values of friendship, loyalty, love, honor, sacrifice, without the knowledge or pride of knowing these are noble values. By the end of the film, I recognize what happens to these children might happen to anyone were we not protected by the proud shackles of civilization and education. Theirs, on the other hand, is the raw, wild spirit, proud and dreamy, full of self-belief; yet suffering from their oversimplified, innocent view of the world.

Poetry in film is a tribute I once paid to Joon-ho Bong, after watching his beautifully haunting "Memories of Murder", where the 'feelings' the movie impressed on me stayed well after watching it. In "Memories of Murder", I could 'smell the rain' till few days after watching the movie. After finishing this cross-continental travelogue of "La Jaula de Oro" few days back, I still feel dry in my throat and dry on my face: it is a thirst unquenched. It is a promise unfulfilled. A dream betrayed and denied, as a direct consequence of my ignorance of the world I live in. I feel I have paid for my foolishness; for the reckless pursuit of my desire for a better life, for my over simplified view of the world. Now, I'm more than thousand miles away from home. My skin is full of scabs, my eyes still dirty from the travel, my hands stained with grease from my new job in the promised land, but my head is turned upward, and when in the night, snowflakes fall over my eyes like infinite stars from the sky, I'm cleansed. Like Juan, I know my heart is always ablaze with an infinite Hope for wonder, and that can never die.

How big must one dream? The road leading to your dream is like a long tunnel. You see the fading little spark of light behind you and shiny dream-white light of hope on the other side. But in-between you have this black unilluminated path to walk through. Does it worth it? What are you ready to sacrifice for your imaginary life? Will you have the courage to go all the way till the end? The movie is about a group of teenagers from Central America trying to immigrate to the Golden Cage (i.e. United States). During the whole film you see miserable faces hoping to seek a better world of opportunities. Do they fear? Do they struggle? Their eyes will expose the truth. Was it all worth it? Excellent film!

Candid, leisurely paced road movie with a mystical quality.

It's not over emotive or soapy; it tells its story visually with an arty touch only when called for.

It overstays its welcome somewhat but it is a vivid depiction of people in quiet desperation and the camaraderie, kinship and viciousness such people must encounter on their journey to a better mediocrity.

You almost don't buy that there's really much threat or conflict so when there finally is, I feel it as if I was right there.

THE GOLDEN DREAM is a quietly gripping story about illegal immigrants from Guatemala striving to reach the US where they can begin the new life of their dreams. The narrative adopts the format of a road movie which follows four different characters as they suffer many trials and tribulations in their attempts to head north. This is a Mexican movie although it does well to put across life in Guatemala. It's low budget but grimly effective, but also one of the more depressing films I've watched; not quite REQUIEM FOR A DREAM levels of depression, but getting there.

This is a harsh and realistic film in which the characters find themselves abused by various people smugglers and corrupt officials and suffer the consequences of their actions throughout. As a 12 certificate movie it leaves a lot of the more explicit material off screen but I found this to be more effective than in, say, an explicit film like HELI, because the power of the human imagination is infinitely greater than anything that can be put up on film.

The performances from the young cast are electrifying and the characters carefully delineated. Brandon Lopez is the brash head strong youth who has to learn a few life lessons en route. Karen Martinez is the heartbreaking girl who has to disguise herself as a boy just to survive. Best of all is Rodolfo Diminguez as the Mayan-descended lad whose tribal language means that the viewer as well as the other characters never find out what he's saying. Despite this he warms the heart with his oh-so-human portrayal of a boy driven to find a better world and a better life. Throughout the darkness there are a few touching moments and the excellent and thoughtful direction makes this one to watch.