PANAMERICAN MACHINERY (MAQUINARIA PANAMERICA) World Cinema

There isn’t a better workplace than Maquinaria Panamericana. Employees are in a convenient location, with an expansive workspace. They have a generous boss who treats his workers as family. It all feels more like fun than labor, until the day owner Don Alejandro is found dead at the back of the warehouse. Suddenly everything changes. It’s discovered the company is bankrupt, and the boss had been paying wages out of his own pocket. With no prospects of employment elsewhere and no future to look forward to, the workers decide to take collective action and lock themselves behind the factory gates, only emerging once they have found a solution. Director Joaquín Del Paso’s first feature is a witty and comedic examination of Mexico’s dysfunctional system where attempts to find a collective voice often lead to more chaos and division. — Christopher Chou