After a 15-year stint in a United States prison, Francisco Cisco Castillo returns home to the Dominican Republic to find that life isnt any easier in his old surroundings. Due to his criminal record, he cant hold down a job, and his alcoholic mother favors her youngest son, a budding teenage criminal who is one stick-up away from jail, or worse. Reluctantly taking up back-alley street fighting to earn cash, Cisco forms an alliance with Nichi, a washed-up boxer from Italy whos struggling with a gambling addiction. To better both of their financial situations, Nichi offers to train the naturally gifted Cisco in the boxing ring.
Co-directors Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas put a delicate touch to this hard-hitting boxing drama, rooting a double-sided story of redemption in the mean streets of the Dominican Republicwhere the hint of paradise offered by the island always seems just out of reach.
Ian Hollander