DEFICIT World Cinema: Latin Showcase

Actor Gael Garcia Bernal’s directing debut is infused with an infectious, youthful energy, voyeuristically following his complex characters at a house party just outside of Mexico City.

Bourgeois, rich kid Cristobal (Gorda Bernal) is having his friends over for a barbecue at his parents’ weekend home. His younger sister (Camila Sodi) and her hippie, pill-popping friends are also staying at the house, and the clash between the two groups of friends, brother and sister and their childhood friend who works for the family is just the beginning of the story.

Bernal uses subtle undercurrents of tension to seamlessly interlace characters, time and place. Both comic and reflective, DEFICIT is an elegant allegory for the current Mexico, one on the brink of change. Shooting in an immediate, improvisational style that emphasizes the class chasms, Bernal elicits layered performances from his young cast, proving himself to be a gifted director as well as a charismatic actor.