City of Dreams 2024 Movie Review
“Over 12 million children are victims of modern slavery this is the story of one of them who fought back”
Over the years there have been many films that deal with horrific crimes against society. Whether they be about drug traffickers, thievery, murder, or many other crimes. One of the worst is slavery or abduction of women and children. City of Dreams depicts a story about these very subjects. It’s Not pretty to see. It’s downright appalling to see, but this is the only way for Americans to see what’s going on in our towns and cities across the United States.
Jesus (Ari Lopez) is a teenage boy in Puebla, Mexico. He loves to play soccer with his friends. When he is offered a chance to go to America to play soccer at a special school he dreams that it could be his salvation. Instead, he is sold into slavery. He works grueling hours at a sweatshop making dresses. When he has finally had enough punishment and abuse at the hands of the men who run the operation he devises a plan of escape. Hopefully trying to find help from the local Los Angeles police department.
This was a passion project for all those involved in making this movie. It sheds light on an epidemic in this country. Kids are supposed to grow up with a life where they have the ability to learn and or find a skill or trade and go to college if they choose. Not end up working for rich garnet warehouse owners and cartels. This isn’t the American dream. The problem is it’s oh so familiar for so many children from low-income countries like Mexico, and many other third-world countries.
The cast is filled with mostly unknown actors, but there are a few I recognized. A pair of police officers who suspect something is going on involving a suspicious house are played by Jason Patric and Nicole Preston. They are both good in their respective roles. Samm Levine plays Nazarian, the owner of the textile warehouse, Lucky Fashion Group, where the clothes are sent to be shipped off. He is a nasty character who ends up in a foot chase with little Jesus at one point in the movie. This was done very well. I’m sure Samm and Ari got their exercise during these scenes. Other characters in the film were pretty nasty as well.
Lopez’s character has dreams and or nightmares that are very visually realized on screen. These sequences were pretty dramatic. The imagery is shown as a way to see the danger this boy sees in his mind which parallels the danger he is going through in his real life. The dichotomy of these two aspects of his life is fascinating to me. As a child, we think differently so we don’t always know what’s truly going on. He had to figure this out on his own and try to do something about it. It was a harrowing experience, to say the least.
There is dark cinematography in this movie. Whether that was on purpose or not I don’t know. Any time the film was in the sweatshop it was very dark. Outside scenes were better lit, but that’s because they were filmed in the daytime. If the darkness of the house was a metaphor of some kind, it was lost on me. Other than that the movie for a low-budget indie film wasn’t that bad. The writer/director Mohit Ramchandani did a solid job on this.
City of Dream is a harrowing tale of survival. It’s a story that goes on way too much in this country. Kids are our future as the song goes. They are not meant to be sold into slavery for rich cartels and businessmen to get richer without paying their fair share of wages. It is criminal activity at its finest. It’s very wrong. This film depicts that behavior very well. It also shows that kids have a will to survive like in the movie. I implore everyone to see this film and help prevent this from happening.
