Indie Showcase: LA COCINA (2024)

In the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, dreams and desperation collide as the back-of-house staff each chase the elusive American dream. When money goes missing from the till, the spotlight falls on Pedro (Briones), a passionate dreamer entangled in a tumultuous love affair with Julia (Mara), a waitress grappling with her own commitments. As tensions rise and shocking revelations unfold, the relentless pace of the kitchen threatens to shatter the hopes and aspirations of those who keep it running.

It’s a high-stakes drama that explores the intersection of the personal ambition and systemic exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers within the pressure-cooker environment of a Times Square New York restaurant.

From director Alonso Ruizpalacios, “I was struck by the complex caste system that still exists in kitchens, and that are an essential part of what keeps them functioning. As with the crew in a ship, hierarchy is not something that is taken lightly behind those swinging restaurant doors.”

Frontiers play a big role in this film: physical, spiritual, and social. The vertical structure of the kitchen is a perfect setting to explore what lies beneath a divided society that is stuck in the same living space. Seen under this light, a New York City restaurant, with its marked divisions between Front and Back of House, between Management and Workforce, American and Foreigner, becomes a perfect metaphor for the modern world. The “Line,” where cooks place outgoing food for the waiters to take away into the dining room, becomes a concrete reminder of these frontiers. It is also the line that separates Pedro and Julia.