“It’s about a whole bunch of things,” Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios says when quizzed on the subject of his latest feature, La Cocina, debuting this evening at the Berlin Film Festival. “In equal parts, it explores the topic of work, the American dream, the failure of the American dream, and abortion rights.
That’s a really tough question as a director.” Ruizpalacios has a point. Starring Rooney Mara and shot in a crisp digital black-and-white, La Cocina is hard to define.
Running just short of two-and-a-half hours, the pic is a complex and formally ambitious tale, perhaps best described as a tragicomedy, set in a deathly busy New York City restaurant called The Grill.
The film opens during the lunch rush at The Grill, where, to the fury of the restaurant management, money has gone missing from the till.
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