Workforce

Construction workers dish out their own justice in an impressively potent drama on individuals and collectives. The sharpest class portrayal from Mexico City since Roma.

Francesco, his brother and a whole work team of low-paid construction workers without any job security and reasonable working conditions whatsoever, are completing a luxury home for a rich customer when the brother dies in an accident on the job. Francesco and the pregnant widow Lupe mourn, but when the employer tries to shirk responsibility the mourning turns into rage – and the seemingly simple workplace drama about oppression and injustice develops into something very surprising and significantly more twisted. David Zonana’s incredibly exciting debut, with the masterful cinematography by Carolina Costa, elegantly upturns the relationship between worker and boss, workplace and home, individual and collective.

• Johan Blomqvist