"Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, Sleep Dealer is a welcome surprise. It combines visually arresting science fiction done on a budget with a strong sense of social commentary in a way that few films attempt, let alone achieve," praised Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. Visually arresting indeed, the debut feature from co-writer/director Alex Rivera appears to be the first sci-fi film set in a third-world locale: "Mexico. The near future. Memo Cruz has always dreamed of leaving his tiny village and heading north. But when he is ultimately forced to leave, Memo finds a future so bizarre-border walls, shantytowns, hi-tech factories, remote control drones and aqua-terrorists-that it looks a lot like today."

Sitting down before its U.S. theatrical release, Rivera, co-star Leonor Varela and I jacked into a conversation about what the film"s really about, the evils as well as the benefits of globalization, and how to find the balance between subtlety and ideological preaching in a sci-fi allegory. all after Varela offered up an amazing impression of a horse. (It was actually in context, but thank goodness I didn"t have to transcribe that!)

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Sleep Dealer opens tomorrow in New York and Los Angeles. For more info, visit the official site. Posted by: ahillis    Source

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