Film: 7 Cajas

2012, Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori, Paraguay, 99 min.

The little film with a big buzz, 7 BOXES has been packing in rave reviews and enthusiastic word-of-mouth on the festival circuit. The hero is Victor (Franco), a 17-year-old hustler who plies his trusty wheelbarrow amid the narrow alleys of Asunción’s sprawling market district. Aided by his quick-thinking girlfriend Liz (González), Victor takes a no-questions-asked job to haul seven sealed crates from a butcher shop.

But what is in those crates, and why is everyone–including cops, thieves, a rival wheelbarrow-jockey, and a murderous gang–after them? Compared by critics to CITY OF GOD, RUN LOLA RUN, and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, 7 BOXES combines kinetic camerawork, breakneck action, vivid characters, and wild humor into an edgy, exhilarating fable of a post-recession world where everything is for sale. In Spanish and Guarani with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)